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Toward movements of the Last salt gentury 

A description of the conspicuous philantropic, mission- 
ary, and spiritual movements of the past fifty years, 
intended to be an aid and inspiration for future efforts 
in the service of God and man. i2mo, Cloth. Price, 
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Tn Christ 3c$m$ 

Or the Sphere of the Believer's Life. It seeks to dem- 
onstrate the range, scope, and applications of the 
phrase which forms its title. The particular applica- 
tion of this phrase is considered seperately as it occurs 
in Paul's epistles. i2mo, Cloth, 197 pp., with 8 illus- 
trated charts. 60 cents. 

Catharine of Siena 

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century. i2mo, Cloth, cover design, 68 pp. 50 cents. 

the miracles of Missons *»wt, s«con<t **& mn $en«s 

Or Modern Marvels in the History of Missionary En- 
terprise. Three volumes containing records of won- 
derful results in mission work, and of missionary hero- 
ism throughout the world. Three separate volumes, 
each complete in itself, uniform style and binding. 
i2mo, Cloth, illustrated. First series, 193 pp., S. Lib. 
163; Second series, 223 pp., S. Lib. 190; Third series, 
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Seed thoughts for Puhlic Speakers 

Six hundred suggestive and illustrative paragraphs for 
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funk $ lUagnaiis Company « « « * Publishers 



Forward Movements 



OF THE 



Last Half Century 



BY 

I .' 

ARTHUR T. PIERSON 

BEING 

A glance at the more marked philanthropic, 

missionary and spiritual movements 

characteristic of our time 



FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 

1900 



^ n o K- 1 o 

Library oi' Congress 

Two Copies Received i 
NOV 16 1900 

J Copyright entry 

N aAV)^b 

SECOND COPY 

Delivered to 

ORDER DIVISION 

NOV 24 IDOU 






Copyright, 1900, by 
PUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 



[Entered at Stationer's Hall, London, England] 
Printed in the United States of America 



\ 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction v 

The Increase of Personal Holiness i 

The Oxford Movement Toward Holiness 14 

Keswick Teaching 24 

Keswick Method 39 

Spiritual Quickenings 51 

The Revival of the Prayer-Spirit 64 

The Prayer-Basis of Mission Work 76 

The Growth of " Faith- Work " 93 

The Culture of the Grace of Giving 107 

The Movement Against Ritualism and Sacerdotalism 126 

The Pentecostal Movement 137 

Bible Schools and Conventions 151 

Woman's Work at Home and Abroad 166 

Ramabai and the Women of India 180 

The Movement Toward Church Union 190 

Organizations of Christian Young People 205 

World-Wide Uprising of Christian Students 218 

The Problem of City Evangelization 230 

The Stimulation of Missionary Zeal 241 

Development of Undenominational Missions 256 

Independent Missions 268 

Individual Links Between Givers and the Mission Field.... 283 

Medical Missions : Samuel Fisk Green, M.D 295 

Ministries to the Sick and Wounded in War Times 307 

Systematic Christian Work Among Soldiers 318 

Work Among Deep Sea Fishermen 331 

Mission Work Among Lepers 340 

Rescue Missions 351 

The Elevation of Orphans and Outcast Children 367 

The Growth of Belief in "Divine Healing" 389 

The Increasing Study of the "Last Things" 409 

Appendix 423 



INTRODUCTION 



THE NEED OF A SOUND SPIRITUAL BASIS 

It is always important to begin at the beginning. His- 
tory is not only philosophy teaching by examples, but it is a 
constant ethical lesson to the studious and candid observer, 
revealing the secrets of success oftentimes through the 
record of failure, and constantly challenging a fresh at- 
tention to the laws which underlie the truest and largest 
and most enduring success. 

In attempting to trace a few of the more conspicuous 
spiritual movements of the half century just closing, the 
main purpose is not so much a historical review, as a prac- 
tical and spiritual result — a new incitement and inspiration 
in the direction of further effort, and more aggressive and 
progressive forms of service to God and man. 

This half century has been lustrous and illustrious for 
the multiplied philanthropic Christian and missionary ac- 
tivities which have sprung up on every side, as growths 
of God's own planting. But, whatever has been thus far 
accomplished, we can only think of Coleridge's words 
about " the petty done " and " the vast undone." Modern 
methods, hundred handed as they are, have not yet begun 
to overtake the misery and poverty, want and woe of hu- 
manity. Beginnings are at best but starting points, not 
goals ; revelations of possibilities rather than records of 
achievements. With the progress of the race, come new 
disclosures of human need, need so various, so multiplied, 



vi INTRODUCTION 

so extreme, as almost to paralyze effort by the measureless 
field of opportunity which it presents. The great question 
still awaits answer: How shall we cope with the destitu- 
tion and distress which manifest themselves in myriad 
forms, all about us ? 

One inquiry concerns the essence of all true work for 
God and man, namely, the principles which constitute the 
base blocks upon which must be reared any enduring 
structure of service. If these be unsound or defective, 
there may be need of a reconstruction from the foundation. 
All serviceableness has its preparations, and to overlook or 
disregard them prevents even the best-intentioned work 
from being either effective or lasting. 

In his book, " From Death into Life," Mr. Haslam tells 
of an elderly Cornish woman, deeply taught in the things 
of God, who, feeling that he was seeking to secure a higher 
standard of Christian activity without due care to lay right 
foundations in personal holiness, asked him one day as he 
passed by, intent on the new church edifice then in his 
mind, " Mr. Haslam, are ye goin' to build your spire from 
the top?" The quaint question was an arrow, not easily 
dislodged. He could not get the thought out of mind. 
" Have I begun at the beginning ? Am I building from 
the bottom, or absurdly attempting to construct from the 
top down ? " Such inquiries he kept asking himself until 
compelled to start anew and lay the broad, deep, firm 
foundation of all holy serving in holy praying and holy liv- 
ing. Such experience has been often repeated. Those who 
have led the way in godly enterprise have seen the radical 
need of a reconstruction from the base upward, and from 
them we may learn a divine lesson, that, to make sure first 
of all that the foundation is well laid on the bed rock of 
God's eternal plan, is to make the whole structure of our 
Christian activity to take on new proportions and dimen- 
sions, new solidity and beauty, and to prepare us to build 



INTRODUCTION vii 

into it gold, silver and precious stones, and not wood, hay 
and stubble. To be thus in fellowship with the great 
Architect and Builder gives a divine character to our whole 
work. It becomes in fact His work rather than ours; 
and, like the Temple of old, it grows up toward completion 
and consummation, noiselessly, symmetrically, ceaselessly, 
with no carnal elements built into it, with no stone or tim- 
ber misplaced, and with no attempt to reshape by tools of 
worldly wisdom and human invention the blocks which the 
Divine Workman has hewn and polished in His own 
quarries and workshops. 

It is of human nature to degenerate ; and hence eternal 
vigilance is needful if work for God is to be kept free from 
worldly elements which corrupt and weaken it. If prayer- 
ful and candid disciples survey the present status of the 
Christian church they cannot fail to see how it is leavened 
by sectarianism, sacramentalism, ritualism, Romanism, ra- 
tionalism and a secularism quite as fatal to spirituality as 
any of the rest. From such conditions a true self-sacrific- 
ing type of service is hardly to be expected. There is a 
serious lack of gospel preaching; reckless extravagance 
reigns with practical denial of stewardship ; and a low level 
of piety prevails with its natural offspring, virtual infidel- 
ity. The church confronts the world, with its thousand 
million unconverted souls, scattered over fields, continental 
in breadth, and proves incompetent to reach them with the 
gospel ; while at home, there is a widening gulf between the 
church and world, which the church cannot bridge, and 
meanwhile intemperance, licentiousness and anarchy be- 
come more threatening and revolutionary. 

With deep affection for the brotherhood of Christ and 
the work of Christ, it seems of great importance to ask 
whether God is not leading His people to reconstruct all 
Christian enterprises on a firmer foundation. He seems to 
us by many signs to be laying new emphasis upon personal 



viii INTRODUCTION 

and practical holiness both in the individual, and in the col- 
lective church life. If our best forms of service are to 
risk no collapse but prove equal to the growing needs of 
mankind, some conditions are needful on our part that we 
may command blessing from above. The word of God 
must be restored to its supreme place as the inspired, in- 
fallible testimony of God ; the personality and power of the 
Holy Spirit, the indispensableness of Christ to human sal- 
vation, the universal priesthood of believers and the need 
of a simple and spiritual worship, the call to separation and 
selfdenial for Christ, and the neglected hope of the Lord's 
coming, — these and like truths must be preached, taught, 
driven home to the conscience — until God's people are 
brought into more personal, living, loving sympathy with 
Himself. 

When Rev. Dr. Alexander MacLaren, of Manchester, 
spoke at the Jubilee of the Free Church of Scotland, he 
thrilled and awed his hearers by characteristic treatment 
of " Spiritual Dynamics." He showed how wide reach- 
ing is the range of spiritual truth, by an illustration which 
had the force of a demonstration, using the image of a 
compass, with one foot firmly set in the true center, and 
the other describing a circle which, while that center was 
preserved, could not possibly err in width or range of cir- 
cumference. Our first necessity is to get the truth center 
and fix there the point of our compass, and then, however 
wide the circle of our activity, we shall always be right, 
scriptural, spiritual ; and, on the contrary, if we have not 
the true center and do not keep it, our best enterprises, by 
whatever name called, will be more or less failures. 

Thus far, all great epochs of spiritual activity have been 
circles with one center : a revival of Evangelical piety; and, 
even within these, smaller circles with a uniform center: 
Prayer. In other words, all wider or smaller enterprises 
of a true Christian character have had one center — a new 



INTRODUCTION ix 

approach to God in believing supplication and intercession. 
John Wesley unconsciously founded a great movement, 
known as Methodism, whose results already are five and a 
half million of adherents ; but all this can be traced back 
to a holy club of four that met in Lincoln College, Oxford, 
one hundred and seventy years ago, for cultivation of holi- 
ness and prayer. The great revivals that swept over the 
United States and Britain between 1830 and i860 were all 
the result of prayer that began with a few burdened souls. 
The China Inland Mission leaped into life under the in- 
spiration of one man's supplication. The Bristol Orphan- 
ages, with all the work of the Scriptural Knowledge Insti- 
tution and of missions in all lands, may be traced to that 
one apostle of prayer, George M tiller . 

If we are to sweep a wider circle of power round now 
unoccupied territory, and have real progress rather than 
apparent and superficial advance, the compass of all 
our plans must fix its foot in the firm, pivotal center 
of believing prayer and the higher holiness that 
is bound up inseparably with devout and privileged 
communion with God. In the brief sketches that follow, 
we shall find examples of this great law of the spiritual 
realm, that, in all solid advance in missions and in all other 
forms of holy enterprise, there is first of all a higher type of 
holy living, which is itself due to new power in supplica- 
tion. 

There has been no time within the memory of men now 
living, which has equaled the present for critical and 
pivotal interest. There is a general unrest and dissatisfac- 
tion among God's people, a common consciousness of the 
need of a higher standard of holiness, and a drawing into 
closer fellowship on the part of praying souls, overleaping 
all previous barriers of separation and exclusion, believers 
fraternizing who have been pent up within high sectarian 
fences. Close limits have restrained many Baptists from 



x INTRODUCTION 

communing at the Lord's table with unimmersed believers, 
and many Anglicans from acknowledging as valid any 
ordination except that of prelatical bishops, and even from 
attending a dissenting place of worship; yet, even such 
walls have not been high enough to keep apart disciples 
who, in yearning for a deeper spiritual life, have found 
in other disciples an answering yearning, as, in water, face 
answereth to face. 

In this union of all disciples in common prayer and self- 
surrender to God for holy living and serving, is to be found 
the most significant sign of the times. It suggests the one 
practical solution of the problem of missions, if not of all 
the perplexities of our Christian life. Certain it is that, 
wherever and so far as these movements have prevailed, 
the whole church has felt a new and reforming power at 
work. Prayer meetings have been multiplied and magni- 
fied : preaching has taken on new scriptural-tone, and new 
Spirit power: giving has become more spontaneous and 
liberal, and offers of service have been made in unprece- 
dented numbers. 

The more we study the question of the connection be- 
tween piety and service, the more we are satisfied that to 
impart vigor and strength to spiritual life is to get down 
beneath all the accidental and superficial attendants of the 
difficulty, to its very root. If missions, for instance, lan- 
guish, it is because the whole life of godliness is feeble. 
The command to go everywhere and preach to everybody 
is unobeyed, until the will is lost by self-surrender in the 
will of God. There is little right giving because there is 
little right living, and, because of the lack of sympathetic 
contact with God in holiness of heart, there is a lack of 
effectual contact with him at the Throne of Grace. Living, 
praying, giving and going will always be found together, 
and a low standard in one means a general debility in the 
whole spiritual being. We must come to feel and acknowl- 



INTRODUCTION xi 

edge this. And, that others may be brought into sympa- 
thetic contact with this flood-tide of spiritual sympathy 
and power which is now sweeping quietly over two conti- 
nents, we have from the best sources possible, got accurate 
information on these subjects, and now spread this before 
our readers, together with accounts of such forms of Chris- 
tian service as may help to illustrate the effctive working of 
the principles herein advocated. 

May the God of all truth and grace add His blessing to 
the simple, humble effort to build up from the base a new 
and growing interest in the work to which our Lord gave 
Himself and appointed us ! 



Forward Movements 



CHAPTER I 

THE INCREASE OF PERSONAL HOLINESS 

All real advance finds its starting-point, as also its goal, 
in more conformity to God. Character lies back of con- 
duct ; what we are ultimately shapes what we do. Hence 
the stress of the whole word of God lies upon the trans- 
formation of the man himself. His outward acts, his 
gifts, his prayers, his whole external life, are of little con- 
sequence if they are not the expression and exhibition of 
a renewed spirit, an inner self that partakes of the beauty 
of the Lord. 

Like a bold headland at sea, with its lighthouse to guide 
the mariner, stand, in the survey of the past fifty years, 
the singularly varied attempts to raise the standard of prac- 
tical godliness, sometimes called " Holiness Movements/' 

Under different names and from divers sources, like 
mingling streams merged into one flood, the current has 
been in one direction. Different names — " Entire Sanctifi- 
cation," " Second Conversion," " Higher Christian Life," 
have clung to these movements ; some of them have been 
stigmatized as " Perfectionism," or mildly described as " for 
the deepening of spiritual life." As certain phrases have 
become obnoxious to criticism, linked with fanatical ex- 
tremes, or calculated to mislead, others have been adopted ; 



2 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

bat it is plain that, in all these efforts, the same Holy Spirit 
has been at work, showing disciples their lack of con- 
formity to God and leading willing souls to new steps of 
self-surrender and appropriation of Christ. This, beneath 
all change of names and variety of forms, is the essential 
fact. 

The master problem is how to make the possible life of a 
disciple real? There is an ideal which is to be kept before 
us as the model and pattern of perfection, and which we 
shall not reach — to reach which would leave no more 
progress possible. When Thorwaldsen had, for once, 
realized his own conception in a statue, he felt that hence- 
forth he could accomplish nothing. But there is a possible 
life, a measure of actual approximation to the ideal, which 
is practically attainable, and has been attained; and it is 
a great mistake and mischief to count this possible and 
practicable life as a mere ideal, as is too often the case ; but 
worst of all to regard it as impracticable because the level 
of living is so low, and the habits of living so carnal, that 
the possible becomes impossible, the will being too weak 
to resist evil, and all aspiration being stifled with the im- 
pure air we breathe. 

How far is a holy life, victorious over sin and restful 
in God, within reach ? and what are the secrets of entrance 
upon this Land of Promise, this present inheritance which 
God would have all His saints to enter and enjoy? 

First, let us contrast the average life of disciples with 
the scriptural standard, and, at least, see what is lacking. 

Socrates held his mission in Athens to be this, " to bring 
men from ignorance unconscious to ignorance con- 
scious/' and the first step in all attainment is to see that 
we have not yet attained. From at least seven points of 
view this contrast may be studied : 

i. The Realization and Verification of things unseen 
and eternal. 



THE INCREASE OF PERSONAL HOLINESS 3 

2. The Separation and Sanctification of conduct and 
character. 

3. The Transformation of the Inner Life of disposition 
and temper. 

4. The Enthronement of Christ as Master and Lord of 
the Whole Being. 

5. The Experience of the Holy Spirit's indwelling and 
inworking. 

6. The Enjoyment of the Rest Life of Faith, and free- 
dom from anxiety. 

7. The Entrance into the Holiest of All, or the right and 
privilege of Intercession. 

If this be not the exact order of importance and of ex- 
perience, it is not widely divergent therefrom ; and a few 
words upon each of these several points may help to im- 
press the general theme upon our thought, and to show, 
how natural it is that God's people should feel the kindlings 
of a higher and holier desire, and aspire after some much 
more advanced attainment. 

The sense of the unseen and eternal lies at the basis of 
spiritual life, which, by its very term, shows its kinship 
with the invisible and imperishable. This world is real, 
and seems real because it appeals to our bodily senses; 
the unseen world seems vague and illusive, because it is 
beyond the realm of sense, and, unless faith makes it real, 
it will grow more distant and shadowy, till it becomes a 
mere phantom of fancy. The writer of the epistle to the 
Hebrews rebukes those who have not " by reason of use 
exercised their senses to discern good and evil." Obviously 
these are not bodily senses, but higher faculties given us 
of God, as channels of contact and communication with 
the unseen world. Reason is the sense of the true and 
false; conscience, of the right and wrong; sensibility, of 
the attractive and repulsive ; imagination, of the ideal and 
invisible ; memory is the sense of the past, and hope, of the 



4 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

future. If these senses are used, they become keener and 
more acute; if unused, duller and more blunt. 

The main office of " closet " communion is the vivid 
sense of God, and hence our Lord's first lesson in the school 
of prayer emphasizes " thou " and " thy " — for it is neces- 
sary to shut all others out, in order to get the vivid vision 
of God. Far more important is it to hear Him speak to 
thee than to speak to Him * " Wait on the Lord " — lit- 
erally, " be silent unto Him." This waiting for a vision 
prepares one for that " practice of the presence of God," 
which Jeremy Taylor makes the " third instrument of holy 
living." This vision of God makes the unseen world 
a verity, a reality, a certainty, as assured as the material 
universe, and he who thus walks with the unseen God, 
like Moses, endures as seeing Him who is invisible. The 
weekly Sabbath rest answers a similar purpose: it leaves 
us free to converse with celestial things. As the eye rests 
itself and improves its vision by occasionally looking away 
from nearer objects to the far horizon or the farthest stars 
of heaven, the whole soul rests by looking at the unseen 
and eternal. And he who robs God of holy time by sec- 
ularizing the Sabbath, cheats himself far more. 

So, also, it was expedient that Christ should go away, 
that henceforth He should not be known after the flesh; 
and that the Holy Spirit should come to dwell within, with 
all disciples and at all times, and school us to know Christ 
by that other unveiling of His personal presence through 
the inner sense, compelling us to walk by faith, not 
by sight, no longer dependent on the grosser carnal 
senses. 

So soon as we really begin to live in this unseen realm 
and walk with this unseen presence, every other attainment 
becomes possible — in a sense natural. To be under the eye 
of God — consciously, constantly — to set God always before 

* See very important text. Numbers vii. ; 89. 



THE INCREASE OF PERSONAL HOLINESS 5 

us, is to have Him at our right hand, so that we can not 
be moved. What holy intrepidity, when He is near, and 
what courage in conflict with evil and in confronting bar- 
riers to service ! The conduct and character become sepa- 
rated unto Him and sanctified, because it is impossible to 
sin deliberately while He is not lost sight of. It is only 
when we flee from His presence, like Jonah, that disobedir 
ence is habitual. To hold one's self directly under God's 
eye, and to stand before Him with the eye upon Him, wait- 
ing for His beck and glance, compels personal holiness — is 
itself the very attitude of holy obedience. In His presence 
sin flees as shadows before the light, for transgressions 
are deeds of darkness. 

Even the inmost life of temper and disposition becomes 
transformed — transfigured — when we live as in His secret 
chambers. When He encompasses and enspheres us, He 
interposes between us and all the foes of our inward peace. 
Envy, jealousy, malice, anger, impatience, ungentlenesSj 
uncharitableness, unloveliness, — all these belong outside 
of the sphere where God and the saint meet and dwell to- 
gether. It is amazing how immediate, and even instanta- 
neous, may be the actual entrance into a new atmosphere of 
inward peace, when once a disciple, after many years of 
hopeless struggle and wrestle with that inward tormentor 
— a vicious temper, an unholy anger, an unsanctified dis- 
position — suddenly enters into the conscious presence of 
God — feels that He is a living, present God, and that He 
can bring under control that wicked and unruly member, 
the tongue, and that even more unruly " member," the tem- 
per ; so that one just gives it over into His keeping and lets 
Him subdue it. And then, to see Him do it ! and not only 
conquer it, but displace it, and in its stead give outright 
its very opposite — flooding the heart with His love — so that 
instead of a constant War against evil, there is a new im- 
pulse, a passion for the right, so that we wonder that we 



6 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

ever saw any occasion for the childish impatience and 
fretf ulness and selfishness of past years ! 

What a step, too, when the keys of the whole house are 
surrendered up to the Lord Jesus, and the whole govern- 
ment of the little empire within transferred to His shoul- 
der; when the last locked room and cupboard and secret 
chamber of our imagery and idolatry are thrown open 
to Him, and He sweeps out all the vile things which the 
godless life has hoarded and hidden; and then turns the 
very hiding places of our abandoned idols into the sanctu- 
ary of His presence and communion ! The enthronement 
of Christ in the soul — that is His manifestation unto the 
believer, as never unto the world, which is the crown of all 
promises. * Then it is that God " reveals His son in " us, 
and shows the vast difference between a Christ within 
and a Christ without — a Christ no longer knocking at the 
door but supping at the banquet board, He with us and 
we with Him. 

Christ ought to be, and may be, on the throne of our 
inner being, Master, Lord, Sovereign. And when He is 
enthroned, self is dethroned. The self-life is the last inner 
enemy to be destroyed. It is the root of all forms of sin ; 
and, long after every known sin and weight are put away, 
it survives ; and when every other form of pride is brought 
into the dust, the subtle survival of the self-life is seen in 
the pride of humility. What a hydra-headed monster self 
is ! — self-trust, self-help, self-will, self-seeking, self-pleas- 
ing, self-defense, self-glory, always intruding between the 
soul and its true Sovereign. To enthrone Christ in the in- 
most life, is to find self-distrust, self-abandonment, self- 
surrender, self-denial, self-renunciation, self-commitment, 
self-oblivion, taking the place of those hideous evils al- 
ready named. 

As to the Spirit's work, how few disciples even under- 

* John xiv. : 33. 



THE INCREASE OF PERSONAL HOLINESS 7 

stand it ! That sublime sentence of ten words : He that is 
joined unto the Lord is one spirit * is the summit of all 
revelation as to the believer's inseparable wedlock with the 
Lord, and it is the key which unlocks both Epistles to the 
Corinthians. For, inasmuch as the Holy Spirit is one 
with the believing human spirit, He must evince such 
unity by the impress of God left by Him upon the believer's 
inner life and outer life. And so Paul teaches that God's 
wisdom is reflected in the disciple's knowledge of divine 
things ; God's ownership, in His possession of the believer 
as His temple; God's sovereignty, in His distribution of 
gifts and spheres of services ; God's eternity, in the glory 
of the undying resurrection body ; God's power, in the be- 
liever's transformation into His likeness; God's holiness, 
in His sanctification, and God's blessedness, in His ecstatic 
visions and experiences, f 

But, beside the Spirit's indwelling, our privilege is to 
know His threefold inworking: His sealing, in our as- 
surance, His anointing, in our illumination, His filling, in 
our gracious power for service. What a monstrous evil 
is that, when a child of God, who may know and feel the 
miracle of such indwelling, inworking and outworking of 
the Divine Spirit, lives a life that so grieves and quenches 
the Holy Ghost, that He is like a silent " voice " or a stifled 
and scarce burning flame ! 

As to the Rest Life of Faith, with its casting of all care 
upon God, and its perfect peace of trust, the fact that 
such experience is possible ought to fill every disciple with 
a divine unrest until it is actually his possession. This 
is the spiritual Canaan, the true land of promise, now to be 
entered, appropriated, enjoyed. Egypt with its bondage, 
burdens, sins, and sorrows, left behind — the desert, with 
its wandering, barrenness, disquiets and defeats, also left 



• 1 Cor. vi. : 17. 
See 1 Cor. ii., vi., vii., xii., xv., and 2 Cor. iii., vi., xii. 



S FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

behind, and the Jordan of a new consecration and self- 
surrender crossed, that He who brought us out may bring 
us in, into conscious fellowship with God, victory over 
the Anakim, possession of the promises, and fruitfulness 
of service. All this disciples have known, like Paul, and, 
thank God, thousands now know ; and it is only because 
unbelief limits God and disobedience limits ourselves, that 
all who are born of God do not cross this Jordan and 
march through this Land of milk and honey, vineyards 
and orchards, forests of timber and mines of precious 
metal, and claim it and all its riches, as their own. 

The last feature of the possible life in God is the privi- 
lege of entering within the rent veil and standing as 
priests and intercessors, immediately before the Mercy 
Seat. Prevailing prayer is so rare that it seems to be a 
lost art. Yet what unequivocal promises offer their crown 
to the suppliant believer ! " Whatsoever ye shall ask in 
my name " — can anything surpass that ! The only limita- 
tion to that universal " whatsoever/' is " in my name," 
which is seven times repeated for emphasis. * The Name 
stands for the Person, and to ask in His name is to ask 
by right of oneness, identification by faith, with Him; so 
that, in effect, He becomes the suppliant. Whoever au- 
thorizes me to proffer a request in His name, himself 
makes that request through me, and the party of whom it 
is asked sees him back of the petitioner. This is our 
Lord's last lesson in the school of prayer, as closet seclu- 
sion was the first ; and well it may be the last, for beyond 
it there is nothing more to be learned or enjoyed. 

It is plain that very few, even among praying saints, 
do so prevail in prayer, and we all know it. Thousands 
of earnest petitions seem wasted, and, judged by re- 
sults, are wasted. Either, therefore, God is untrue or man 
is unfaithful. The former supposition would be blas- 

* John xiv.-xvi. 



THE INCREASE OF PERSONAL HOLINESS 9 

phemy; and we are driven to the conclusion that there is 
little real asking in Jesus' name. Here is the real core 
of the difficulty. Unbelief, disobedience, an alienated 
heart, separate the believer from Christ and the Spirit, so 
that the bond is practically ineffective; prayer in Jesus' 
name is too high a privilege and prerogative to be enjoyed 
without intimate union, a sympathy that Christ himself 
calls a symphony. * Symphony is musical accord, and 
implies chords, attuned to the same key and to each other 
and struck by an intelligent musician's hand. Even a saved 
soul may live a life so practically unbelieving, unloving, 
unsubmissive, that there is discord rather than concord — 
then such symphony becomes impossible, and the words 
" in Jesus' name " become a mere forrn, if not a farce. 

The teaching of the word is unmistakable. James, and 
John, and Paul, complete Christ's lesson, and teach that it 
is only holiness of life which brings such accord with God 
as to make possible prayer in Jesus' name. While I con- 
tinue in sin, neglect known duty, regard iniquity in my 
heart, the Lord can not hear me. Such a life sounds in 
His ear one long discord ; disobedience makes even prayer 
a new affront to God. But, so far as we are swayed by 
faith, love, obedience, zeal for God's glory, the Spirit 
groans within and our prayers find their way into Christ's 
censer, and come back in answers which are mingled with 
the fire from the altar above, t 

The believing, obedient disciple may thus enter into the 
Holiest of all, and take his stand as a priest — note the 
meaning of the word — one who stands before God; he may 
come to the very Mercy Seat, claim the intercessor's right 
and place, and, like Noah and Job, Abraham and Moses,, 
Samuel and David, Elijah and Daniel, prevail with God. 
What wonder that the patriarch of Bristol, sixty-five years 

* Matt, xviii. : 19. Greek, 
t Rom. viii. ; Rev. viii. 



io FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

ago, gave himself to a life of intercession that he might 
prove to an unbelieving world and a half believing church 
that God is a present, living, faithful prayer-hearing God ! 

We have thus, as briefly as was possible, outlined the 
holiness movement of our century. It is this life of seven- 
fold privilege, power, and blessing, that the Holy Spirit 
is urging upon God's people by many forms of appeal ; 
and the fact that extremes and errors now and then appear 
in connection with human advocacy of a holier life should 
not serve to obscure the fact that, underneath all the 
worthless driftwood that is borne on by this current, there 
is a deep, onflowing River of God. 

We must at least advert to some of the conspicuous 
leaders of these holiness movements, if only to mention 
a few of them. 

Charles Grandison Finney was one of the conspicuous 
promoters of this advance. He stands especially for the 
responsible activity of the human will, versus the passivity 
of a fatalistic election. He found himself living in an age 
of apathy, when even disciples were idly and indifferently 
consenting to a life, alike devoid of holiness and power, 
waiting for some irresistible impulse from above. And he 
thundered out remonstrance. He emphasized the neces- 
sity and liberty of the Human Will, in salvation and sanc- 
tification; and carried his doctrine so far, that he main- 
tained that all sin and holiness depend mainly on the atti- 
tude of the will, and hence that a perfect choice of God 
and goodness is essentially a perfect life. 

Asa Mahan, and others of the same school, represent 
especially the definite reception of the Holy Spirit in sanc- 
tiUcation and for service. He maintained with singular 
force and power that an unholy life is one which is incon- 
sistent with the fundamental law of salvation ; that there is 
to be a new creation, and that the disposition is to be rad- 
ically renewed by the grace of God; and that this inner 



THE INCREASE OF PERSONAL HOLINESS n 

transfiguration may be as instantaneous as the type of it, in 
Christ's transfiguration. 

William E. Boardman stands for a higher Christian life 
— a change, corresponding to conversion, and often 
known as a " second conversion " — in which the change 
of attitude Godward, conscious witness of God's in- 
dwelling and inworking, and power to work for human 
salvation, are as unmistakable as the transition from night 
to day. 

R. Pearsall Smith, and others like him, advocated and 
emphasized non-continuance in sin, abandonment of every 
weight, even tho not positively sinful, and a definite con- 
secration, whereby the wilderness life is left behind for the 
Canaan life. 

The Plymouth brethren, with all their divisive, exclu- 
sive, and sometimes controversial tendencies, have with 
uncompromising hostility fought for the Word of God as 
the final rule of faith and practise, for a simple apostolic 
worship, and a literal obedience to Christ's teachings. 
They have done as much as any class of disciples to pro- 
mote practical separation from the world, and must not 
be forgotten in the general estimate of the factors con- 
tributing to the great final result, a sanctified and peculiar 
people for God. 

The Methodists deserve recognition, as leaders in in- 
sisting on " Sanctification," ever since the days of Wes- 
ley; but we are now particularly tracing recent develop- 
ments without respect to denominations. The Mystics 
also would deserve a very prominent place in this survey, 
only that their history reaches back through the ages and 
demands separate treatment ; yet it is not to be overlooked 
that every great movement in the direction of holier life is 
inseparable from this great current of thought that is asso- 
ciated with such as Jacob Bohme, St. Theresa, Catherine 
of Siena, Madame Guyon, Fenelon, Tauler, and William 



ri FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

Law. They who taught "vision by means of a higher 
light, and action under a higher freedom " may have run 
to extremes, but they got hold of two essential principles 
that underlie all the highest and holiest experiences, and 
many of them closely walked with God. 

Among all the leaders of this holiness movement, we 
regard one, hitherto unnoticed as such, as unsurpassed 
in his way — the late and widely mourned Adoniram J. Gor- 
don. Without ever talking much about it, or even think- 
ing of himself as an example or advocate of a holy life, he 
lived what many others taught, and walked while they 
talked. Never has the writer known any man in America 
whose crystalline beauty and symmetry and transparency 
of spirit surpassed his. How far Dr. Gordon taught holi- 
ness is seen in his books on the " Twofold Life," the 
" Ministry of the Spirit," " How Christ Came to 
Church," etc. But how he lived holiness, only those know 
who daily enjoyed his companionship, and saw his face 
shine with the beauty of the Lord that was upon him. 

The theme we are treating is of sublime practical im- 
portance; it is colossal, overtopping all other subjects in 
its magnitude as related to the triumph of Christ in this 
world. Only a " peculiar people " will ever be " zealous 
of good works." While we seek to build up missions or 
service to mankind, upon any other foundation than holi- 
ness unto the Lord, we are basing our work upon quick- 
sand. All the " enthujiasm " in the world will only be 
like froth and foam, which overflow and leave nothing 
behind, — a deceptive delusive glow of sentiment, a tempo- 
rary and untrustworthy excitement, followed by reaction 
into more hopeless apathy — unless obedience be beneath 
— and obedience- itself based on the rock of love — a secret 
sympathy and affinity with God. 

If God's call to a new life might lead the reader 
to immediate and unconditional committal to the will 



THE INCREASE OF PERSONAL HOLINESS 13 

of God — to a final break with the world, a final aban- 
donment of all known sin, however seemingly trivial; 
a renunciation of all doubtful indulgences, as " not of 
faith " and therefore " sin " — if the hesitating and un- 
believing would take the step into the overflowing Jordan, 
and test God's power to bring them in and make the prom- 
ises their own, what fulness of blessing might come to a 
halting church and a revolted world! 



CHAPTER II 

THE OXFORD MOVEMENT TOWARD HOLINESS 

There is one modern contribution both to the literature 
and the life of holiness which is attracting, as it deserves, 
wider attention than any other single development in this 
direction ; and the whole history connected with it becomes 
correspondingly important. Its results have already a far 
wider range, and forecast a much broader future, than 
most of us realize. One who was as well qualified to sup- 
ply the earlier records as any other, and who recently 
passed away from earth at an age past three score and ten, 
has given his calm judgment on " The genesis of the Ox- 
ford movement for the promotion of holiness." We give 
it a place here, for he was intimately, and from the begin- 
ning, both an actor in, and an observer of, what he here 
puts on record. 

The spiritual history of the coming decades in England 
can be predicted largely from the spiritual currents among 
the younger men of the universities. The " High 
Church " or " Puseyite " tidal wave was rightly called 
" the Oxford movement/' The " evangelical impulse," 
given mainly by Charles Simeon, was similarly called " the 
Cambridge movement." Succeeding, or parallel to this 
last, was a radical highly Calvinistic impulse through the 
unorganized body called " the Plymouth Brethren." In 
the well-known book, " The Fairchild Family," by Mrs. 
Sherwood, one may find the evangelical teaching pressed 
to its extreme and least attractive forms, and in the numer- 
ous and widely circulated publications of the " Plymouth 

14 



THE OXFORD MOVEMENT 15 

Brethren " will be found the teaching of the strongest 
doctrines as to implicit literal " obedience to the Word," 
or Scripture, combined with strictest Calvinistic state- 
ments as to the forensic condition of the believer, as an un- 
alterable complete state of grace. The influence of this 
latter teaching extended through both the Established 
Church and most of the dissenting bodies, far beyond the 
limits of the unorganized Plymouth Brethren themselves, 
who, without formal membership or denominational sys- 
tem, met " to break bread/' as they termed the act of 
communion. 

In the seventies, the first generation of these three forms 
of revival was passing away, and the successors, who had 
not shared the deep spiritual crisis in which the High 
Church, evangelical and Brethren movements originated, 
found themselves with forms, either of ritual, or of doctrine, 
which, dulled by use, failed to meet their spiritual needs 
as they had supplied those of their predecessors. There 
was a felt lack of, and a great hungering for, a personal 
righteousness, which should really meet their too often 
starving spiritual natures. Taught that they were sacra- 
mentally complete by absolution on one hand, or judicially^ 
forensically, perfect by forgiveness of sin on the other, 
they yet found themselves unsatisfied, with no well of liv- 
ing water within, as promised in Scripture. They lived 
with a high standard of holiness, yet under frequent or 
almost constant sense of condemnation for transgression. 
They exaggerated the doctrine, often expressed in the 
words " black but comely ; " or, as they would state in 
prayer-meetings, they were " from the crown of the head 
to the sole of the foot full of bruises and putrefying sores," 
while yet forgiven saints, and by imputation " whiter than 
snow," and ready for heaven itself. Their supposed ju- 
dicial standing and their lives of practical failure, were in 
startling contrast. 



16 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

In this condition of mind numberless tender-hearted 
Christians found a sorrow which nothing reached. They 
felt that they were by their failures continually grieving 
the One in all the universe whom they loved best, and 
they suffered constantly renewed sorrow. Saved, as they 
believed, for eternity, from the penalty of sin, they were 
yet in many respects under sin's acknowledged power. 
They were not gross sins, but sins of pride, anger, temper, 
censoriousness, evil thoughts ; and they even sometimes felt 
that some around them who made no Christian profession 
were more free from failure than themselves^ 

In 1873 a series of papers written in America appeared 
in a London weekly, now named The Christian, which 
called atttention to a neglected part of scriptural teaching. 
This teaching was that Christ came to save His people 
from their sins, and not from the consequences of them 
only; that in the Epistles His offering of Himself was 
oftener stated as for their sanctification than even for 
their justification ; that " He gave Himself for us that He 
might purify unto Himself a people/' etc. " Who His 
own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that 
we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness/'' 
This was felt to be more than judicial pardon and imputed 
righteousness. One part of the Gospel had been fully 
preached, pardon to the sinner, forgiveness to the repent- 
ant transgressor; but its complement of a practical, con- 
tinuous victory over temptation, equally provided in the 
Gospel, had been overlooked. A false humility, while 
boldly claiming pardon for sins, overlooked its correlative 
victory over sin. 

These " views " in The Christian deeply affected great 
numbers of spiritual Christians, and when, in 1873, they 
were emphasized in meetings, beginning in the rooms of 
the London Young Men's Christian Associations, many 
were greatly changed by them in their attitude as to faith 



THE OXFORD MOVEMENT 17 

and personal consecration, and consequently in their 
lives. 

What was taught was simply that a completed conse- 
cration of will and a completed trust in the Word of Christ 
would bring the Christian into a realization of the prom- 
ises of victory over sin, and into sustained communion 
with God ; that the only normal condition of the " be- 
liever " was that of full belief ; of the " child of God," 
implicit obedience. That, as a bird cannot rise on one 
wing, so in both full trust and full obedience alone could 
a disciple find the promises of victory over sin a continu- 
ing reality. 

What gave effect to this teaching was the steady in- 
sistence that here and now, even while this simple truth 
was being preached, the Christian should yield his too 
often divided will, give up some doubtful or consciously 
condemned idol or practice, and commit himself to an un- 
reserved trust and obedience. Often it was like death 
itself to renounce something more or less clearly known 
to be evil. " I would die if I gave it up," said a popular 
preacher, referring to an unhallowed indulgence. The 
reply was, " Life to a Christian is not a necessity ; obedi- 
ence is. The early Christians preferred death to dis- 
obedience, and so must you." The agony almost of death 
was in his countenance as he said, " Then I renounce it." 
The battle of Waterloo is said to have depended on the 
possession of a small cottage as a key to the contest. It 
was often some small matter in which the will was en- 
trenched, and till this w r as yielded full trust was impos- 
sible; and, conversely, often till a full trust was exercised 
the yielding was impossible. How near souls often were 
to the Rock and knew it not ! A man descending a well by 
a rope found himself at the end of the line, and soon his 
strength began to fail. He could not climb up, and to let 
go would be, he supposed, to be dashed to pieces. At 



1 8 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

length he could hold on no longer, and dropped. The dis- 
tance to the rock was — three inches! How often have we 
seen the spiritual counterpart of this scene ! 

Words can but imperfectly describe the joy and spiritual 
power which came through the extension of these meet- 
ings to thousands of clergymen and religious teachers, and 
to Christians in less conspicuous conditions. By the lib- 
eral kindness of Samuel Morley, the Member of Parlia- 
ment for Bristol, a leading Congregationalist, a series of 
breakfasts were given in London in 1874-75 for ministers, 
which were attended by twenty-four hundred preachers, 
mostly at breakfast-tables of thirty or forty in a morning. 
Continuous meetings of a few days at a time were held in 
London and the provinces and in various cities on the 
Continent; and, in 1874, in response to the request of a 
number of young men at the University of Cambridge, the 
late Lord Mount-Temple opened his country seat, " Broad- 
lands," widely known as the residence of the late Lord 
Palmerston, for a meeting of ten days. This was by pri- 
vate invitation, and so great was the blessing found, that 
it was felt that another and larger meeting must be con- 
vened. This resulted in a meeting at Oxford of clergy- 
men of the Establishment, as well as preachers and mem- 
bers of the various churches, about a thousand in number, 
gathered from all parts of England. At this " Conven- 
tion " many pastors were also present from the Continent ; 
and similar meetings were held later in France, Belgium, 
Holland, Switzerland, and Germany, which were crowded, 
sometimes the addresses being repeated twice in the same 
evening to as many as six thousand hearers. Every- 
where the same remarkable results in the revival of the 
Christian life were realized. In France, Theodore Monod, 
in Switzerland, Pastor Stockmeyer, and in other countries 
others held similar " conventions," or " retreats " upon 
the same model. 



THE OXFORD MOVEMENT 19 

In 1875 a yet larger meeting of ten days was held at 
Brighton, attended by about six thousand persons, among 
whom were about two hundred and fifty pastors from 
Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, 
Holland, and France, and also the venerable Bishop Gobat 
of Jerusalem. 

And now, after twenty-five years, there are still held 
annually in England, many such " retreats " or " conven- 
tions "ona similar plan of three-day to ten-day continuous 
services. The one at Keswick, established by the Rev. 
Canon Battersby, is widely known. The one at Guilford 
collects about five thousand persons annually. From many 
countries on the Continent continual reports come of con- 
tinuous blessing still attributed to this movement. At 
Nancy, for twenty years a pastor has held a weekly meet- 
ing as a remembrance and continuation of the blessings 
received at Brighton. 

This spontaneous, unorganized movement, so far as is 
known, never resulted in a change of the Church connec- 
tion of a single individual from that in which it found 
him. It gave him power to work in the sphere in which 
he already lived. The establishment of a new denomina- 
tion was confidently predicted by some, but its announced 
object was not a change of either doctrine or organiza- 
tion, but a revival of living faith in truths already ac- 
cepted, and in full practical obedience within spheres al- 
ready found. 

All this was without public emotional expression, indi- 
cation of physical excitement, not even a single Amen ! be- 
ing spoken aloud. Those who led it, as it happened, did not 
need pecuniary support, and with little mention of needs 
for rents of halls and traveling expenses of Continental 
pastors, there was a surplus of many thousands of pounds 
of voluntary contributions, while no portion of a guaranty 
fund of twenty-five hundred pounds was required. 



20 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

Seventy ushers waited on the meetings at Brighton, held 
in several languages, from seven o'clock in the morn- 
ing almost continually till ten at night. The civic cor- 
poration gave three large halls and many rooms for the 
purpose, free of charge. 

Among other results, a great and continuous impulse 
has been given the missionary movement, through the 
completed obedience and faith of Christians attending 
these " consecration meetings." Perhaps, the results were 
larger in Germany than in England. A German theo- 
logical professor has said that, as Justification by Faith 
had once been established in German theology, so now 
sanctification by faith has likewise been largely accepted. 
In various quarters a great impulse was given by this 
wave, to missionary work, the dedication of the will, the 
central thought of it all, leading to this form of service in 
large numbers of cases. 

When Mrs. Catherine Booth was dying she said to 
Mr. Edward Clifford, who was much with her, that the 
Oxford-Brighton movement was one of the principal 
means of the establishment of the work of the Salvation 
Army, or rather an aid to it. It brought the great num- 
ber of the upper classes who have been effectually reached, 
into sympathy with the Salvation Army, the central power 
of which was the same — a completed consecration and a 
full faith. Curiously, therefore the " High Church " were 
reached at one end, and the " Free Methodists " at the 
other. And yet more curiously, it was the means of for- 
warding the agnostic " Peoples' Church " through an at- 
tendant at Brighton, who, in a joyous sense of a yielded 
will, and full trust, feeling the force of the historical dif- 
ficulties in Christianity, tho he seemed as earnest, sincere, 
consecrated and true in heart as ever, felt led with the 
same sort of personal devotion to making a church for 
the large class of morally good men among the working 



THE OXFORD MOVEMENT 21 

classes whom he found seemingly incapable of Christian 
faith, in its historical sense, and he formed congregations 
out of such. Many such men acknowledge that the spirit- 
ual leverage, — the power to immediately and greatly move 
souls to make a choice — is wanting. In one of George Mac- 
donald's novels he makes the typical " broad " doctrine cu- 
rate effect only a modification of a carpenter's cynical views 
of life ! Sudden and effectual conversion — the ordinary 
work to be wrought by evangelical preaching — is not in it, 
though he had the novelist's choice. 

The essence of Christianity seems to lie, not so much 
in doctrine, even historical, as in the surrender of the will 
and effectual realization of the real Fatherhood of God 
and Brotherhood of Christ: and one burns to have these 
things proclaimed in power, and souls brought out of that 
misery of a conscience quickened while yet there is a 
divided heart — into the joyous obedience of a realized son- 
ship. This is the truth which has formed " the church 
within the church " in all the ages — the inner church 
which instructed Luther and the great apostles of the 
faith, — even while some of them rejected the form it took. 

It would not be well to close this notice of the movement 
without stating what is not meant by the teaching above 
described. Everywhere anxiety prevailed among good 
Christians lest it should mean " sinless perfection." Per- 
haps our danger lies more in sinful imperfection, but yet 
it is an honest anxiety based on occasional fanaticisms. 
The wine of the Kingdom, like earthly wine, proves some- 
times too much for ill-balanced souls. It was interesting 
to see persons coming to these meetings full of the expecta- 
tion of hearing " sinless perfection " preached, and then 
to note their surprise as a speaker opened with the words, 
" Perhaps no one has ever accurately defined and limited 
the term Sin. If it be the coming short of the absolute 
holiness of the Divine, I sin in every breath I draw." Such 



22 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

hearers would look in surprise at one another, and the 
speaker would continue : " But if continuous, conscious 
trespass be made the necessary inevitable condition of the 
Christian ; if he, by the law of his existence, as a follower 
of Christ, must continuously and inevitably grieve Him 
whom he loves best in all the universe; if the fence be- 
tween sinners sinning and saints obeying be thrown 
down ; if Christ did not die to redeem us all from iniquity, 
and purify us unto Himself, to save us from our sins, 
then is the Gospel a failure as regards this life, and the 
will of God is not our sanctification." Yet no one can claim 
deliverance from sin in any other sense than victory over 
known, discovered sin. Had we the insight of angels, we 
could not take one step in our confused surroundings 
without conscious sin. But from known sin, from dis- 
cerned evil, one may find deliverance in Christ. And as 
we walk in the light and in obedience, each day shows 
us more of evil to be avoided. In to-day's light yesterday's 
sin of ignorance may become one of knowledge, to be now 
conquered. No wise person will boast that he has not 
sinned for such and such a time. But he may say, that to 
the utmost of his trust is his victory over known sin ; and 
that so far as he does not trust, in so far he fails. In 
such a life, the moment of confession of sin is the moment 
of realized pardon, and also of power to avoid its repeti- 
tion. 

Wherein, then, does the present life of those who have 
found this blessing differ from former experience ? It dif- 
fers, first in not expecting to sin, and not making provision 
for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof; and then, in the 
courage of faith, that secret of victory, and the coincidence 
of our wish or will with what we as yet know of God's will, 
which makes a habit of victory and obedience. 

You claim an undivided allegiance to your country, en- 
tire loyalty to your wife, complete affection for your chil- 



THE OXFORD MOVEMENT 23 

dren — is it impossible to have, as to the totality of your 
condition, equally true relations to God? Must you be 
partly a rebel, an adulterer, indifferent to your children? 
Nay, even tho there be momentary failure, the trend of 
your being, the habit of your life, the current of your ex- 
istence, may — nay, must — be henceforth allegiance, loy- 
alty, love. Then you no longer are under law — a sense 
of compulsion, a contest of inclination, but your will, now 
completely yielded, becomes henceforth that of God. 

" I worship Thee, sweet Will of God, 
And all Thy ways adore, 
And every day I live, I learn 
To love Thee more and more." 



CHAPTER III 

KESWICK TEACHING 

Keswick is a town of Cumberland, England, on the 
south bank of the Greta, some twenty-four miles from 
Carlisle, and having a population of from three thousand 
to four thousand. It has no importance commercially, tho 
its manufactures indicate industry and its two museums 
index intelligence. In this Lake District, forever famous 
by association with Coleridge, Southey and the poets of 
the Lake School, Keswick's vale is unsurpassed for pictur- 
esque beauty and fascinating scenery. 

But Keswick is yet better known by the annual conven- 
tion of believers already referred to, which meets there an- 
nually, during the last week in July, and during the whole 
year more or less radiates blessed influence through the em- 
pire and the world. More than twenty-five years ago that 
remarkable movement began in Britain, which in a pre- 
vious chapter was traced to its beginning, and which has 
ever since been in progress, a sort of modern Pentecost, 
whose depth of meaning and breadth of influence were un- 
known and unsuspected at first, even by the movers of it. 

An American evangelist, R. Pearsall Smith, a man 
whose tracts and addresses have for many years been a 
stimulus to holy living, was, with his wife, Hannah Whit- 
hall Smith, providentially among those who were connected 
with the inception of the movement. 

It is a singular fact that God seldom moves only on one 
section of the Church, or in one locality, alone. Simulta- 
neous quickenings commonly take place in various parts 

24 



KESWICK TEACHING 25 

of the world, as the reinvigoration of a human body would 
show itself in different members and even at the opposite 
extremities, at the same time. 

These various conventions, across the sea, were held, as 
we have seen, in 1874, at Broadlands, July 17-23, and at 
Oxford, August 8 to September 1, then at Brighton, May 
29 to June 7, 1875, and the first Keswick Convention fol- 
lowed, from June 29 to July 2 of the same year. With the 
convening of the last mentioned, the lamented Canon Bat- 
tersby is inseparably connected, who, as he wanted a lay- 
man to cooperate, invited Mr. Robert Wilson to join him. 
The first Keswick Convention was attended by between 
three hundred and four hundred. The Brighton gathering 
was for ten days, and from 6,000 to 8,000 were present. 

About the time when these meetings were held in rapid 
succession in Britain and on the continent, there were in 
more than one quarter in the United States similar gather- 
ings, as at Oberlin, Ohio, and in Maine, on the borders 
of Canada, where a great company assembled for purposes 
akin to that of the British meetings, 40,000 special rail- 
way tickets being sold in connection with the Maine con- 
ference alone. 

Rev. Evan H. Hopkins, who has been closely identified 
with the Keswick meetings for years, has briefly written 
the history of this movement. * He says : 

During 1873, small meetings were held in London, where great 
and definite blessings were realized by a few. These led to larger 
gatherings, and in the year 1874 special meetings for consecration, 
for two or three days at a time, were held at the Mildmay Con- 
ference Hall, and at the Hanover Square Rooms. These were 
followed by similar meetings in Dublin, Manchester, Nottingham, 
and Leicester. On the Continent, too, meetings for the same pur- 
pose and on exactly similar lines were held. The result was that 
very many of God's children, both at home and abroad, were 
awakened to a deep sense of need, and to an expectation of larger 



* Life of Faith. July 22, 1896. 



26 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

and more definite blessing, such as they had never conceived pos- 
sible in this life. The uplifting of soul experienced by many was 
one of the most striking features of the movement, and the effect 
of their testimony upon those who came within the sphere of their 
influence, was one of the chief factors in arousing the Church to 
seek the realization of its privileges in the matter of triumph, use- 
fulness, and power. 

In the summer of 1874, the first convention at Broadlands was 
held. Its origin was in the desire that a number of young uni- 
versity men, who had found partial blessing in some meetings 
for consecration held at Cambridge, should have a few days of 
quiet meditation and prayer in some secluded spot, keeping be- 
fore them the following definite aim : The Scriptural possibilities 
of the Christian life, as to maintained communion with the Lord 
and victory over all known sin. The plan was extended to the 
invitation of about a hundred persons for six days — July 17 to 23. 

Such was the absorbing interest felt by all, that no difficulty 
was found in gathering the guests at seven o'clock in the morn- 
ing; and it was an effort to separate when the breakfast hour of 
nine came. At ten o'clock conversational meetings were held, 
Bibles in hand, in different places through the grounds, and at 
eleven o'clock there was prayer, with singing and addresses. 
Meetings for ladies only were also held; and at three o'clock 
conversational meetings, followed by a general gathering at four; 
and after tea Bible-readings, till the regular evening meeting. 
The manifested presence and power of God pervaded every meet- 
ing, and many stated that the long periods of silent prayer had 
been to them the most solemn and helpful seasons of their spiritual 
life. 

One wrote at the time : " We began ' with the negative side, 
renunciation of discerned evil, and even of doubtful things which 
are not of faith, and therefore sin. For some days the company 
was held under the searching light of God, to see and to remove 
any obstacles to a divine communion, or aught that frustrated the 
grace of God. We sought to have that which was true in God 
as to our judicial standing in a risen Christ, also true in personal 
appropriation and experience. Many secret sins, many a scarcely 
recognized reserve as to entire self-renunciation, were here 
brought up into the light of consciousness and put away in the 
presence of the Lord. We desired to make thorough work, so as 
to have no known evil or self-will unyielded ; and we took the 
position of solemn purpose to renounce instantly everything in 



KESWICK TEACHING 27 

which we should find ourselves ' otherwise minded,' as from 
time to time ' God shall reveal even this unto us.' 

" In the intervals of the meetings it was interesting to see 
groups gathered, in the more secluded places in the woods by the 
river, on their knees, praying, searching the Scriptures, or speak- 
ing earnestly to each other of the all-absorbing subject of our 
meetings. Some one had proposed to have reading at the meal- 
times, so as to concentrate our minds ; but no such plan was 
needed to keep the company, even at times of refreshment, to the 
one engrossing subject." 

In a letter received from Pasteur Theodore Monod at the time, 
reference is made to this memorable occasion. He says : " The 
difference between those Broadlands meetings and many others 
that I have attended is just the difference between a flower and 
the name of a flower. Christians too often meet only to talk 
about good and precious things: peace, joy, love, and so on; but 
there we actually had the very things themselves. I cannot be 
grateful enough to God for having led me into such a soul-satis- 
fying and God-glorifying faith. I think I may say that I got all 
that I expected, and more. And I begin to suspect that we al- 
ways get from God everything — provided it be good for us — that 
we ask for, expecting to get it. Oh, for self-forgetting faith, 
that I may have more and more and more of it, and that the 
Church of Christ may cease to grieve Him, distress herself, and 
hinder the coming of His Kingdom, by disbelieving His Word ! 
My French companions have all derived much benefit from the 
Conference. God be praised for His work ! Never mind the 
world, nor the devil, so long as you have the sunshine of Jesus' 
smile in your heart." 

During this Convention our brother Monod wrote the now 
well-known hymn, "The Altered Motto:" 

Oh ! the bitter shame and sorrow 
That a time could ever be, 
When I let the Savior's pity 
Plead in vain, and proudly answered, 
" All of self and none of Thee." 

It was only a short time before this hymn was written that 
our brother entered into the " fulness of blessing." 

The account of the Broadlands Conference was read far and 
wide, and awakened considerable interest. Many who had never 



28 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

attended any meetings of the kind were led to cry to God for the 
fulness of the Spirit, with an expectation and earnestness of de- 
sire they had never before known. At the close of the meetings 
one said, " We must repeat these meetings on a larger scale, 
where all who desire can attend." And one of the guests vol- 
unteered £500 toward the expenses of this effort. But none of 
this money was found to be necessary when the proposal was 
actually carried out in the conference that followed. So abun- 
dant were the offerings that large sums remained over actual 
expenses, to be devoted to the extension of the movement on 
the Continent. 

It was suggested by the late beloved Sir Arthur Blackwood, 
who was present at Broadlands, that this proposed convention 
should be held at Oxford during the vacation, and it was accord- 
ingly held from August 29 to September 7, 1874. The details of 
the meetings were settled during a mission week in August, at 
Langley Park, the seat of the late Sir Thomas Beauchamp, Bart, 
near Norwich, who, having received great blessing himself in a 
similar meeting the previous year, again gathered about forty 
clergymen, and many others, for five days' waiting upon God 
for consecration and prayer. The invitation to the " Oxford 
Union Meetings for the Promotion of Scriptural Holiness," was 
issued on the 8th of August, 1874. Tho the notice was so short, 
a large and representative number of Christians came from all 
parts of the kingdom, as well as a great many pastors from the 
Continent. 

An able review that appeared immediately after, will give some 
idea of the deep impression made during those ten days at Ox- 
ford:— 

" ' God hath visited His people.' If any one had said a year 
ago that we should see, in Oxford, an assembly of Christians, 
very largely composed of ministers of the Establishment and 
various Nonconformist bodies, and including twenty or thirty 
Continental pastors, gathered for the purpose of seeking, by 
mutual counsel and united prayer and consecration, to reach a 
higher condition of Christian life, it would have been considered 
far more devoutly-to-be-wished than likely to occur. And if it 
had been added that we should see early morning meetings of 
nearly a thousand of these men and women, of all ranks in 
society, and of all denominations, gathered in prayer, and for 
the communication of their experiences in the divine life, clergy- 
men and laymen standing up and declaring what God had done 



KESWICK TEACHING 29 

for their souls, there would, have been not a few to say, ' If the 
Lord would open windows in heaven might such a thing be ! ' 
But God has opened the windows of heaven, and is pouring out 
a blessing that there shall not ' be room to receive it.' And not 
only so, but ' God hath chosen the foolish things of the world 
to confound the wise; and the weak things to confound the 
things which are mighty; that no flesh should glory in His 
presence.' 

$ He * ♦ ♦ 

" We have attended many conferences, but in many respects 
this excelled them all. It is the fruit and flower of those which 
have gone before — of those at Barnet, and Mildmay, and Perth, 
and other places at home, as well as of Mannheim, and Vineland 
and Round Lake, in the United States. Conferences must be of 
another type henceforth. 

" If it be asked, What is ' the blessing? ' it is the blessedness of 
the man ' who maketh the Lord his trust,' ' whose strength is 
in Thee ; ' of them who have not seen and yet have believed, who 
stand by night in the house of the Lord trusting where they 
cannot see Him, who present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, 
acceptable to God, their reasonable service, and who, doing this, 
are not conformed to this world, but are daily being transformed, 
by the renewing of their minds, that they may know what that 
good and acceptable and perfect will of the Lord is." 

At this Oxford Convention the late Canon Harford-Battersby 
himself entered into " the rest of faith." But for this event the 
now well-known Keswick Convention would never have had a be- 
ginning.* 

Very soon after, similar meetings on a smaller scale, but on 
the same lines, were held at Stroud, and two brethren who had 
taken part at the Oxford meetings conducted this Conference, 
and the Rev. Preb. Webb-Peploe was amongst the listeners. He 
had not been able to attend the Oxford Conference, and we think 
it was only at the Stroud Conference, or soon after, that he him- 
self definitely entered into the blessing of the more abundant 
life. The Cheltenham Conference followed the Stroud Conven- 
tion, and there for the first time he actually took part in the 
movement. 

The next great series of meetings was the wonderful Brighton 

* " Canon Harford-Battersby and the Keswick Convention," edited by 
two of his sons. (Seeley & Co., London.) 



3 o FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

Convention, held in the Pavilion at Brighton, from May 29 to 
June 7, 1875. There some eight thousand people, the greater 
part earnest, well-instructed Christians, met together for ten days 
in prayer, meditation, and waiting upon God. Addresses were 
given there during those days, which live to this day in the 
memories of those who heard them, and have been the means 
of lasting blessing to thousands. Everywhere — at home and 
abroad — we meet with the abiding fruits of this memorable gather- 
ing. It was at this Convention Canon Battersby arranged for the 
first Convention at Keswick, to take place in July of that year. 

In looking back upon the years that have elapsed since then, it 
would be interesting to be able to note the various names of 
those who now take part in this great gathering at Keswick, and 
to record the particular year, and circumstances, when they each 
saw for the first time the truth of a fuller life. It canot be too 
clearly stated that those who are asked to speak at this and other 
similar conventions are those, only, who can bear testimony to 
a definite experience of the fulness of blessing. 

Every year at the Keswick Convention numbers of God's chil- 
dren are brought into a realization of their resources in Christ, 
such as they have never before thought possible; and this has 
given a strength and brightness to their lives which have been 
felt by others around them. In this way the movement has been 
continually advancing and deepening, so that its influence is 
seen to-day in every quarter of the globe. 

So writes Mr. Hopkins. In Brighton, to-day many 
may be found who were present at the conference held 
there in 1875. In a sense, the greater part knew not 
wherefore they were come together, except that there was 
a general and widespread longing and expectancy for a 
new and singular bestowment of Power from on high. 
Worldliness, formalism, apathy, selfishness in the Church, 
were so apparent and so alarming, that devout believers 
were driven to the Throne of Grace to seek help from God. 
Throughout the whole convention at Brighton this bless- 
ing was wonderfully realized. While engaged in prayer 
the Holy Spirit mysteriously laid hold on men and women, 
and they were swayed as by a rushing, mighty wind. 



KESWICK TEACHING 31 

Prayer became more earnest, importunate, believing, pre- 
vailing, and some new force was manifestly controlling. 
The first fruits were found in a distinct entrance into 
newness of life on the part of many, hitherto religiously 
cold or conventional, hampered by forms, exclusive, un- 
charitable? inconsistent, and without power as witnesses. 
Clergymen of the Anglican Church were among the prom- 
inent parties receiving Divine enduement. At the time no 
one suspected the real import of this Divine visitation, and 
hence the early history of it has somewhat inadequate rec- 
ords. * It is, however, remembered by all those who had 
a share in it as a very unusual and quite indescribable 
manifestation of spiritual quickening and power. Such 
a meeting would of course be the mother of others, and 
hence the subsequent " Keswick " meetings. 

These found both suggestion and warm support in the 
Vicar of Keswick, the late Canon Battersby, by w.hose 
influence they became connected with, and located at, that 
beautiful spot. While he lived, he presided, the presidency 
then passing by a general assent to Mr. Henry Howker, 
and at his death to Mr. Robert Wilson, and without any 
fixed committee of leadership, or definite arrangement of 
man, it remains with Mr. Wilson, so far as any human 
hand is on the helm. 

Keswick stands for a peculiar type of spiritual teaching 
and life. Those only who understand and exhibit it are 
asked to take part. To a singular extent no deference is 
paid to men, however high their social or ecclesiastical 
position. The most renowned minister, evangelist or theo- 
logical professor might happen in a meeting, but would 
be asked to speak only as he was believed to have been led 
out into this sort of spiritual experience and teaching. 



♦ " Record of the Convention for the Promotion of Scriptural Holiness," 
held at Brighton, 1875. London, S. W. Partridge &. Co., and "Account of 
the Union Meeting," etc., at Oxford, 1874. F. H. Revell, Chicago. 



32 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

The first Keswick Convention lasted four days, and was 
held in a building; but, as the meetings became more 
largely attended, they were transferred to a tent. The 
present tent holds about 3,000, but often 10,000 attend in 
course of the convention. 

As many who are deeply interested cannot hope to at- 
tend these great gatherings, it may be well to ask and an- 
swer two questions, briefly : 

What is the exact type of Keswick teaching and 
method ? 

What are the actual results reached? 

The Type of Keswick Teaching. — This is definite, com- 
plete, comprehensive, and progressive. It has a begin- 
ning, middle, and culmination. Seven successive stages 
may perhaps be indicated, all of them important, and sub- 
stantially in the following order : 

1. Immediate abandonment of every known sin, doubt- 
ful indulgence, or conscious hindrance to holy living. 
Rom. vi. 12-14, xiii. 12-14, xiv. 21-23 » Heb. xii. 1, 2. 

2. Surrender of the will and the whole being to Jesus 
Christ as not only Savior, but Master and Lord, in loving 
and complete obedience. Rom. x. 9 (R. V.), xii. 1 ; 1 Cor. 
xii. 3. 

3. Appropriation by faith of God's promise and power 
for holy living. Rom. iv. 20-25, vi. 11, vii. 24, 25, viii. 
I, 2 (R. V.) ; 2 Pet. i. 4; Heb. viii. 10. 

4. Voluntary renunciation and mortification of the self- 
life, that centers in self-indulgence and self-dependence, 
that God may be all in all. Gal. ii. 19, 20, iv. 24 ; Col. iii. 
5; 2 Cor. v. 15. 

5. Gracious renewal or transformation of the inmost 
temper and disposition. Rom. xii. 2 ; Eph. iv. 23 ; 1 Pet. 
iii. 4. 

6. Separation unto God for sanctification, consecration 
and service. 2 Cor. vi. 14, vii. 1 ; 2 Tim. ii. 19-21. 



KESWICK TEACHING 33 

7. Enduement with power and infilling with the Holy 
Spirit, the believer claiming his share in the Pentecostal 
gift. Luke xxiv. 49; Acts i. 8; Eph. v. 18. 

The obvious basis of all this teaching is the conviction 
that the average Christian life is grievously destitute of 
real spiritual power and often essentially carnal; and that 
it is the duty and privilege of every child of God at once 
to enter into newness of life, and walk henceforth in the 
power of Christ's resurrection. A few leading teachings 
should be emphasized. 

First, the starting-point — instant abandonment of sin, 
and of every known weight which prevents or hinders 
progress. Whatever is wrong or believed to be wrong in 
God's sight cannot be indulged for one moment with im- 
punity ; it is utterly destructive of all holy living and testi- 
mony, unnecessary because wrong, and makes impossible 
even the clear assurance of salvation. Moreover, how can 
we lead out others into a life we have not ourselves found ? 
How can one help a sinner to salvation unless he knows 
he is saved ? To continue one moment in what is felt to be 
sin is therefore perilous not only to holiness, but to the 
hope of salvation itself and to all true service. 

Again, a deadly blow is aimed at self-life in its seven 
forms; self-dependence, self-help, self-pleasing, self-will, 
self-seeking, self-defense, and self-glory; in other words, 
a new practical center is sought for all the life to revolve 
about, and in this way a new step is taken in advance. 
Beyond the territory of known sin there lies another al- 
most as dangerous, where self-indulgence is the peculiar 
feature. There is a large class of pleasures, amusements, 
occupations, which do not bear the hideous features of se- 
cret or open sin, but which all tend to give supremacy to 
self. In them all the real question is : What will gratify 
and glorify myself? For example, the pleasures of ambi- 
tion, grasping after power and position, which feed self- 



34 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

glory ; avarice, heaping up riches, which is pleasing to self- 
indulgence; appetite, eating and drinking for the sake of 
pleasure, which ministers to self-seeking; and other forms 
of selfishness, such as courting human applause by intel- 
lectual preaching, or conformity to worldly maxims. 

Five or six forms of amusement bear the distinct stamp 
of this world, whatever may be contended as to their in- 
herent innocence : the theater, the dance, the card-table, the 
horse-race, the opera, the wine-cup. These have been felt, 
for some reason, to hinder holiness and service ; and some 
churches have distinctly made indulgence in them a matter 
of discipline. Whatever may be said of them, this is true : 
that, wherever this deeper experience of Christ's power 
has been known, it has always been preceded or followed 
by their abandonment. These matters are very seldom re- 
ferred to specifically at the Keswick gatherings, as the 
teaching concerns great general principles of holy living 
and serving ; yet, as a fact, those who attend are brought 
face to face with this question: how can you do anything 
primarily to please yourself which does not put at risk 
your pleasing God? A high type of holiness always in- 
volves two practical rules : 

(a) I will seek in everything to please my Master as the 
Lord and Sovereign of my life ; 

(b) I will seek to please my neighbor for his good unto 
edification. 

Hence one remarkable feature of this movement has 
been, for instance, the abandonment of tobacco, not be- 
cause its use can be conclusively shown to be inherently 
sinful, or because of any direct pressure brought to bear 
by speakers ; but because, where used, not as a medicine, 
but for indulgence of a liking, it exalts self to the throne. 
Paul gives by the Spirit three all-controlling principles to 
guide in doubtful indulgences, and in each case he care- 
fully guards the principle by saying in advance, " all 



KESWICK TEACHING 35 

things are lawful for me ; " but he adds in one case, " all 
things edify not, are not expedient; " and in the other case, 
" I will not be brought under the power of any." Compare 
1 Cor. x. 23 : vi. 12. 

Three questions are thus to be asked after the matter 
of lawfulness is settled. First, is this lawful thing ex- 
pedient? does it advance or retard holiness? second, does 
it edify — that is, help or hinder others ? and, third, does it 
tend to enslave or to emancipate me? One whose whole 
heart is set on pleasing God will soon settle all debatable 
territory on such principles. 

Again, the surrender of the will to God in obedience is 
insisted on. Christ must to every believer become not only 
Savior but Lord (Rom. x. 9, R. V.). " No man can say 
that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost " ( 1 Cor. 
xii, 3.). Hundreds who accept Him as Savior from sin 
have no real conception of Him as the actual Master and 
Sovereign of the daily life. In the message to Laodicea 
we have a hint as to this sort of professed believers. " Be- 
hold I stand at the door and knock — ." Christ, outside, 
knocking and appealing for admission. The keys of the 
house are not in His hands. He is not admitted to His 
own house and in control. There is a definite act of open- 
ing, welcoming, and entrusting to Him the keys, which 
represent government ; but so long as one apartment in the 
house is voluntarily withheld from Him, He never prac- 
tically assumes control. From the nature of the case it 
must be all or none; and every child of God may soon 
know, if he searches his own heart, whether any part of 
his life shuts out Jesus from practical rulership. If any 
part of the body shrinks and shows abnormal sensitiveness 
under the surgeon's touch, he begins to suspect that there 
is a lurking place of disease. And, whenever a disciple is 
especially sensitive as to any one or more forms of in- 
dulgence, or shrinks from the candid application of Scrip- 



36 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

ture to any particular practice, he may know that at that 
point there lurks spiritual disease. On the other hand, if 
the hidden recesses be opened up to Christ and He be 
welcomed to the whole heart and whole life,, the very 
chambers of previous idolatry will become the chambers 
of heavenly imagery and Divine communion. 

Again, the infilling of the Spirit. — Here is perhaps the 
most delicate and difficult part of this teaching. But it is 
well not to stop on phrases; whether we agree or not on 
the exact form of words, we must admit facts, and a con- 
spicuous fact is this : that thousands of professed believers, 
like the Ephesian disciples in Acts xix, do not practically 
know whether there be a Holy Ghost or not. Dr. A. J. 
Gordon discriminated between sealing, filling, and anoint- 
ing, referring the first to assurance, the second, to power, 
and the third, to knowledge. The practical point is this : 
have you ever claimed and received as such the power of 
the Holy Spirit? He came down on the day of Pentecost 
and filled disciples. This was an experience quite apart 
from conversion, for the hundred and twenty were all 
disciples and some had for years followed Jesus ; and yet 
then suddenly all received a Divine gift, whereby they had 
new apprehension of all spiritual truth, more assured wit- 
ness borne to them as children of God, and greater power 
in testimony for Christ. Somehow they were filled with 
light, love, life, and power ; their tongues were loosed, and 
they spake even in languages, before unknown. Now, it 
may be, and doubtless is, true, that such " baptism " of the 
Spirit was once for all, and that no further such effusion 
is to be expected in this age. But every disciple is at least 
entitled to claim his full share in that blessing and enter 
into pentecostal life and power, or rather to have it enter 
into him. 

This is to be claimed by faith, quite apart from feeling. 
Nowhere in the Word of God is stress laid on feeling, for, 



KESWICK TEACHING 37 

if God made feeling a proof or test, essential to evidence 
or confidence, we should rest on, and trust in it, and our 
faith and hope would vacillate as often as our feelings do. 
Man is complex ; he is composed of body, soul, and spirit ; 
and body and soul have much to do with spirit. Where 
the body is not normal, a cloud comes over the higher 
faculties. What we call " feeling " is often largely at the 
mercy of digestion and other physical conditions which 
do not affect faith or choice. The will may be as un- 
changingly fixed on God in sickness as health, tho the 
feelings vary with every change of bodily mood. " Ac- 
cording to your faith be it unto you." If you open your 
heart to the Spirit's infilling, claim this blessing, and rest 
on God's faithfulness, He will not fail you. 

The ultimate result of this teaching when actually trans- 
lated into experience is the enjoyment of the privileges 
and victories implied in this higher or deeper life, such as 
the rest life of faith, power over sin, passion for souls, 
conscious fellowship with God, growing possession of 
promises, and prevailing prayer and intercession. The 
Revelation of Jesus Christ in the soul as an Indwelling 
Presence is the climax of all. The supreme end of the 
Holy Spirit's indwelling and inworking is to manifest the 
personal Christ as consciously in our possession and in pos- 
session of us. This is the mystery: Christ in you. The 
Spirit first takes the things of Christ and shows them to 
the believer; second, he testifies to Christ, and, third, he 
glorifies Christ. Note the three parts of this work as laid 
down in John xiv-xvi: Manifesting, witnessing, glori- 
fying. He shows Christ in all His offices and relations; 
He makes Him real as an actual possession; and He 
clothes Him in glorious charms, so that we gaze on Him, 
enamored of His beauty and love. It is very different to 
have Christ revealed without, as a historic personage, and 
within, as experimentally and really Master and Lord. 



38 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

This latter, the Holy Spirit does, as the former is effected 
by the Word. 

The advocates of " Keswick " teaching earnestly desire 
that they shall not be supposed to advocate any new doc- 
trine. All the truths for which Keswick stands are as old 
as the New Testament; but it is the object of prayer and 
endeavor to help others to see what is taught in the word of 
God, to claim the promises, and appropriate the power of 
the Blessed Christ. Like the unclaimed riches in the Bank 
of England, there are mines of unappropriated treasure in 
the word of God. 

One of these teachers, addressing ministers of Christ 
and friends in America, wrote : 

" It is an unfeigned delight to find that the teaching of the 
Inner Life is becoming so widespread in its influence on this 
side the Atlantic. Union with Christ is His death and resurrection, 
the reckoning oneself dead to self, the infilling of the Holy Spirit, 
and the Rest of Faith, Life across the Jordan in the Land of 
Promise, these are familiar and deeply prized truths and their 
wide dissemination and realization on the part of believers, to- 
gether with the exposition of the Bible, as opposed to merely 
topical preaching seem to me the conditions of a Revival of God's 
work in this land, which shall reanimate the churches, and enable 
them to act as the cementing bond in your vast and varied 
population." 



CHAPTER IV 

KESWICK METHOD 

The New Testament reminds us that truth and error 
find their allies in the manner and method of conduct, as 
well as in formal teaching. Mute surroundings are vocal 
with testimony; the chosen symbols of holy influence are 
salt and light ; the presence of a good man, and many other 
things beside his speech, witness to the truth; and so the 
personality of a wicked or worldly man has an influence of 
its own, quite apart from his utterances. 

Keswick method, as well as teaching, has been on trial 
for a quarter of a century. Impartial observers, watch- 
ing from without the influence exerted upon the religious 
thought and conduct of many thousands who have felt and 
acknowledged the power of this teaching, have been con- 
vinced of the Scriptural character and spiritual whole- 
someness of this doctrine, and the practice everywhere 
found linked to it, and have given to it emphatic approval. 

In April, 1897, an important convention was held in 
London, England, the purpose of which partly was that, 
in the metropolis of the world, leading Keswick 
teachers might give an authoritative statement of this 
teaching, correcting misapprehension, and bringing these 
vital truths into touch with many who had never been at 
Keswick conventions; and, it was hoped also to satisfy 
some whose doubts only such personal attendance at Kes- 
wick meetings could dissipate, and who perhaps had a 
desire " to spy out the land " and find out what weak 
points, if any, there were in the teaching now inseparable 

39 



40 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

from the name of Keswick. The writer was at both the 
London and Keswick gatherings of 1897 and at smaller 
ones in the interval, at Dublin and other places; in fact 
these four months were passed in public and private con- 
tact with men and women who have been most closely 
linked with this movement ; and the result of careful study, 
both of the formal teaching and the actual tendencies of 
the Keswick movement confirmed the previous opinion, 
that this class of truths furnishes a great corrective remedy 
for the unspiritual drift of our day, and a great educative 
force for lifting spiritual life to a higher level. Those who 
come under the influence of a Keswick convention, in a re- 
ceptive spirit, feel its power, and yearn to have it essen- 
tially reproduced elsewhere, not as a mere adjunct to some 
already existing conference of Bible students or Chris- 
tian workers, but with all its main characteristics, lest 
there should be lost any of the peculiar features which give 
it its unique power of impression, and without any one of 
which it would cease to be what it is. 

The object of the present chapter is to give the reader 
a glimpse, if possible an insight, into what it is which 
makes Keswick such a force in modern spiritual life. The 
teaching is not to be accurately judged, apart from certain 
conspicuous surroundings which characterize the assem- 
blies and give a unique character to the whole convention. 
Indeed, it may be doubted whether the verbal teaching is 
even the mam feature of the Keswick movement; there 
are other matters at least as important, quite apart from 
the direct instruction given in the addresses. One may 
read the whole series of addresses, as reproduced verbatim 
in the " Life of Faith," and yet miss the most conspicuous 
charm of these assemblies — the very aroma of the flower. 
Those who have little knowledge of the matter often dis- 
miss this teaching as a mere " school " of religious opin- 
ion akin to one of many modern types of doctrine, the ten- 



KESWICK METHOD 41 

dencies of thought which differentiate one theological 
school from another. This is a great mistake. Keswick 
stands for a great deal more than the truth, orally pro- 
claimed from its platform or promulgated through the 
press, and it is this other side which is needful for the 
comprehensive understanding of the matter, and valuable 
for the many instructive lessons involved. 

First of all, it may be well to refer to a misconstruction 
or misapprehension, found in a paragraph from a prom- 
inent religious newspaper : 

" The Keswick movement in some localities has run into ex- 
cesses, has caused divisions in churches, has produced self-right- 
eousness, and caused men and women to say, by their actions, 
to fellow-Christians, ' Stand aside, for I am holier than thou.' 
This does not come from the indwelling of the Spirit of God ; 
is the exact opposite of the results of the ministry of the Holy 
Spirit, for the Spirit Himself has declared through an inspired 
Apostle that ' the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long- 
suffering, gentleness, meekness.' The people who declare them- 
selves to be of such superior spirituality that they can no longer 
be associated with the membership of a Christian church are mis- 
led and mistaken, and are not led by the Holy Spirit." 

It is remarkable, in connection with this movement, that 
it has never been found to cause " divisions in churches," 
no man or woman ever yet being known, through its influ- 
ence or under its teaching, to leave one communion for an- 
other. In fact, one conspicuous result has been that those 
who at Keswick meetings find newness of life, rather in- 
cline to stay where they are, ecclesiastically, and seek to 
infuse new life into dead and formal service. If Keswick 
teaching " produces self-righteousness and causes men 
and women to say ' Stand aside, I am holier than thou,' ' 
we have not met a single such case, for again, it is one 
notable fruit of this teaching that it produces humility, 
and considerate charity for others. As it insists that holi- 
ness is the result, not of a prolonged and persistent self-ef- 



42 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

fort, but of a simple appropriation of Christ as the victor 
over evil, the tendency is to humble disciples by reason of 
the conscious inadequacy of their own endeavors, and their 
entire dependence on the Spirit of God. The most con- 
spicuous exponents and examples of this teaching are, like 
the late Dr. A. J. Gordon, the last to assert their own 
sanctity, and w r ould be shocked, should others ascribe to 
them holiness or perfection. They repudiate all such epi- 
thets, becoming more lowly in mind as they become the 
more lofty in aim and pure in heart. 

There are at least a dozen matters, in regard to which 
Keswick is a standing protest or witness, or both, and 
which are entirely aside and apart from the verbal utter- 
ances of its platform, but without which those utterances 
would be shorn of their real effectiveness. It may be well 
to enumerate, tho some things evade analysis and defy 
description. 

The methods and measures characteristic of a true 
Keswick convention are quite as important as the truth 
taught; and bear quite as distinct a stamp of peculiarity 
and individuality. 

The Method, thus inseparable from the teaching, in- 
cludes also seven particulars : 

1. Dependence, solely and directly, upon the guidance or 
administration of the Holy Spirit. John xvi. 7-15; Acts 
viii. 29, 39, xiii. 2-4. 

2. Independence of Worldly patronage, of numbers as 
the sign or measure of success, and of merely secular at- 
tractions. Matt, xviii. 19, 20; John xv. 18, 19; Jas. iv. 4; 
1 John ii. 15-17. 

3. Subordination of music, teaching, and all else to the 
promotion of holy living. Eph. v. 19; 1 Cor. ii. 2-5. 
xiv. 26. 

4. Emphasis on a definite experience as indispensable to 



KESWICK METHOD 43 

power in testimony. John iii. 11; Gal. i. 11 -16; Acts 
iv. 13. 

5. Apostolic simplicity of worship, witness, and volun- 
tary giving. Acts ii. 42-47; 2 Cor. ix. 5-10. 

6. Unity of believers on the basis of great essentials, 
such as the Incarnation, Atonement, and Regeneration. 
John iii. 3-6; 1 Cor. xv. 1-4; 1 John iv. 2, 3. 

7. Habitual waiting on God in prayer as essential both 
to receiving and imparting blessing. Eph. vi. 18-20; 2 
Thess. iii. I, 2. 

It is refreshing to find anywhere methods so scriptural 
and apostolic: Direct dependence on Divine guidance, 
no step taken, even in minute matters, without first re- 
ferring it to God to know His will ; and consequent inde- 
pendence of human patronage; no alliance sought with 
great names, the rich, the nobly born, the leaders of 
thought, the aristocracy of intellect; to find such sin- 
gular indifference to mere numbers, no emphasis being 
placed upon crowds as a sign of success or blessing, or 
as the measure of encouragement; and consequently, no 
catering to popularity; nothing done simply to make the 
meetings " draw," no savor of sensationalism,, however 
mild. Nor is there reliance on eloquent speaking, as such. 
No program. of speakers or subjects is ever published, 
and even the " speaker's program " gives no hint of topics 
to be treated. 

The platform is one of witness, no fame, learning, or 
eloquence, apart from a definite experience of blessing, giv- 
ing authority to bear a testimony. 

A definite result is uniformly sought in the practical 
life of the hearer, toward which all else is directed. Hence 
the definite type and order of teaching, the truth being 
presented, not at random, but with reference to its bear- 
ing on this result. Immediate, visible, decisive action on 



44 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

the part of the hearer is urgently insisted upon — a surren- 
der to God at once, carrying with it prompt renunciation 
of known sin and obedience to known duty. Hence, much 
prominence is given to after-meetings. 

Sacred song is used as an aid to worship and teaching; 
simple, congregational singing, and always chiefly, if not 
solely, with reference to the impression of the Word; 
not as an independent attraction, but a subordinate adapta- 
tion, preparing for, and following up, the truth taught. 

Confidence is felt in the Holy Spirit's presence and guid- 
ance; the pervading impression is that God has con- 
trol, and hence that remarkable emphasis, laid upon public 
and private waiting on God in prayer, seldom found else- 
where. There is no appeal for money, even to meet ex- 
penses, save through boxes provided for voluntary offer- 
ings, it being a fundamental principle to rest on God for 
means to carry on His work, rather than to look to monied 
men and women. All disciples are recognized as " one 
body in Christ," and every one members one of another; 
only the essentials of Christian doctrine being made prom- 
inent, without regard to minor differences. 

The meetings are not controlled by any one man, but 
by a committee and council of godly men and women, 
who are in hearty agreement as to the foregoing positions. 
While Keswick is the main center for gatherings in the 
end of July, during all the year, at various points in the 
United Kingdom, local conventions, for the deepening of 
spiritual life, are held under the direction of the Keswick 
leaders and teachers ; and men and women go as mission- 
aries both to home and foreign fields to spread the knowl- 
edge of these truths, and encourage the simple apostolic 
methods so blessed of God. 

In all this teaching and method there is nothing new, 
save the new stress laid upon neglected truths. In all 
movements, conspicuously owned of God, there has been 



KESWICK METHOD 45 

simply a return toward primitive apostolic models, the su- 
preme purpose being to make real and actual to disciples 
the experience of the fulness of blessing offered in Christ 
Jesus. Because such has been the practical result of the 
teaching and method above outlined, God has set His seal 
upon it in marked blessing, tens of thousands giving 
proof that there has come into their lives a vital force, 
transforming both character and conduct. 

Believing the essential conditions of blessing to be 
everywhere and at all times the same, the matter herein 
presented is commended to the prayerful consideration of 
fellow-believers in every place and of every name, in hope 
that united prayer and effort may be directed toward the 
establishment of conferences for the promotion of a fuller 
life in Christ wherever like-minded disciples are ready to 
meet in the name of the Lord Jesus. 

The above statement of principles is necessarily con- 
densed, and hence open to misconstruction if not inter- 
preted according to its plain intention. It is in no sense 
a creed or a complete and exhaustive statement. Yet if 
we are to learn the lesson God would teach, it is needful 
to understand both the truths and the practices which have 
been so owned of God. However important the teaching 
at Keswick, these methods of conduct are essential to the 
whole movement as such, and, if there is to be a counter- 
part and not a counterfeit of the movement elsewhere, it 
must begin from the beginning, and upon a right basis. 
The methods in vogue at many existing religious gather- 
ings, however justifiable, are certainly in marked contrast. 
For example, we generally find dependence on organiza- 
tion, numerical strength, and secular attractions; every 
effort made to draw the crowds, by an announced program 
of speakers, if not of subjects ; music a studied attraction, 
sometimes a performance by professional artists, and sing- 
ing, cultivated as a matter of art; constant effort made 



46 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

to get famous, prominent, eloquent and popular speakers, 
and the element of witness not made emphatic, or generally 
even essential. Whoever thinks of limiting the choice of 
speakers to those who have a definite experience, along a 
certain line of testimony? Speakers often are admitted 
to the platform of our summer gatherings, who are known 
to hold doubtful doctrine, if not to encourage questionable 
practice, but who are popular. No convention in America, 
with perhaps two exceptions, definitely aims at securing an 
immediate and absolute surrender to the mastership of 
Christ, and the entire transformation of both inner and 
outer life of those who attend. 

Reference has been made to a definite order in which 
truth is taught at Keswick. For example, on the first day 
or two sin is dealt with, and its immediate abandonment, 
the effort being made to bring one face to face with God 
as a judge, and to produce conviction of guilt, sin and 
need. On a succeeding day, such themes as the power of 
Christ, and of a true, vital union with Him, of the Holy 
Spirit's indwelling, and the proper use of the Word of 
God, as preventives of sin and promotives of holiness ; and 
on another, the Life in God with its immunities, privileges, 
possibilities. Then, as the convention week closes, service, 
its conditions, laws and qualifications, with special em- 
phasis on the enduement and the filling of the Holy Spirit, 
with a final meeting on Saturday, when the mission field 
and its claims are urged. 

This general outline is never filled in twice alike, so 
that it is no mechanical cast-iron model or pattern, allow- 
ing no flexibility or variation. There are many advantages 
in such order of teaching, which moves onward, step by 
step, toward definite results, and enables speakers who at 
any stage of the meetings make their appearance, to fall 
in with the purpose and purport of the teaching at that 
particular stage. And in arranging the speakers' pro 



KESWICK METHOD 47 

gram — which is only for their own guidance as to the 
times of their addresses — regard is had to the fitness of 
particular persons to deal with certain lines of truth, as 
shown by previous experience. 

Without antagonizing methods that may elsewhere pre- 
vail, or of disputing their possible uses or advantages, 
one fact stands out indisputable: Keswick methods are 
so characteristic and so inseparable from its teaching 
that, if the teaching is to have its full sway, it must not 
be divorced from all that God has joined with it. 

How can a similar type of teaching and method be 
given fullest scope elsewhere? Obviously there are no 
geographical limits to such uplifting and sanctifying in- 
fluences, and disciples everywhere need such inspiration to 
holiness and self-surrender, as Keswick has supplied for 
a quarter of a century in Great Britain. 

Whenever some convenient and central locality — per- 
haps more than one — can be chosen under God's guidance, 
where meetings could be annually held in some tent or tab- 
ernacle, commodious and inexpensive; if there could be a 
right start, with indifference to mere numbers, with care- 
ful avoidance of all men and measures not in accord with 
simple, scriptural and spiritual aims and methods; wher- 
ever, in a word, similar conventions could be held, start- 
ing right, and then kept within the original lines, un- 
leavened with sensationalism and secularism, untold bless- 
ing might ensue to thousands of disciples. And we can 
at least devoutly pray that God would in His own way 
and in many other localities, lead up to such results. 

But, wherever such results are sought, we must be 
prepared to start with a small number of like-minded 
people; where even a few are prepared to claim His 
promise, to the smallest number who can meet — two 
or three — He says, " I am in the midst of them." A large 
gathering at the outset might be fraught with risk. The 



48 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

greatest movements in spiritual life never do begin with 
large numbers. The beginnings of this great reformation 
in British religious life were so small as to be now hard 
to trace. A few people, gathering in London at noonday 
in a hall ; then a hundred or so at a private residence, 
meeting by invitation ; then, step by step, more and larger 
gatherings, until no place was found for the throngs. But 
more marvelous than the growth, is the way in which, for 
twenty-five years, the Keswick platform has been kept free 
from mere popular oratory, and held its position as a place 
of witness along a line of definite teaching. What a 
temptation, as the crowds grew and with the crowds divers 
people of diverse opinions and preferences, to cater to the 
popular demand for fine speakers, especially if they were 
Scriptural teachers, famous orators, or learned expositors ! 
But no. The apostolic succession of testimony has been 
preserved unbroken. 

Keswick teaching is definite and unmistakable. It af- 
firms a possible and practical deliverance from continuance 
in known sin ; a renewal of the spirit of the mind, a do- 
minion of love, an experience of inward peace; it main- 
tains that it is a sin to be anxious, because, where anxiety 
begins, faith ends, and where faith begins, anxiety ends; 
that it is not necessary to be under the dominion of any 
lust of body or mind, to live a life of doubt and despon- 
dency, or to have interrupted communion with God. For- 
feited joy means broken fellowship. To every trusting, 
obedient soul, who dares take God at His word and count 
every commandment an enablement, there is an immediate 
deliverance from the palsied limbs that make impossible 
a holy walk with God ; from the withered hand that pre- 
vents a holy work for God, and from the moral deformity 
that bows one together, so that it is impossible to lift up 
one's-self to spiritual uprightness and erectness. To those 
who are thus bound by Satan, He, who is the same yester- 



KESWICK METHOD 49 

day, to-day, and forever, still and for evermore says, 
' Thou art loosed from thine infirmity." Divine hands are 
ready to be laid upon us, and make us at once straight and 
strong to glorify God in holy living. 

Such are the real, present and practical truths, for which 
Keswick stands, — truths taught effectively, because taught 
only by those who, whatever else they lack, do not lack the 
personal experience of deliverance, but who can say, how- 
ever humbly, boldly, " The Lord hath done great things for 
us, whereof we are glad ; " and the sight of those who are 
thus healed, as of old, stops the mouth of cavillers, and em- 
boldens the feeble faith of the hesitating and doubtful. 

Once more, let us remind ourselves that the conditions 
of blessing do not vary essentially with change of scene 
or actors. God loudly says to His people that He is wait- 
ing to bless them anywhere and everywhere, and He puts 
before them an example and a pattern which has had His 
seal for a quarter of a century. Why attempt to improve 
on the pattern, or to secure like blessing in neglect of the 
pattern? Keswick has been a fountain of spiritual life, 
because four great scriptural laws have there found sin- 
gular exemplification: habitual prayerfulness, prominence 
of the Word of God, unity among all believers, and de- 
pendence on the Holy Spirit, closely reproducing the as- 
semblies of the primitive apostolic church. Believers meet 
from day to day to magnify scripture teaching, to sing 
holy hymns, to know no name but that of Christ, to ac- 
knowledge no presiding or administrative power but the 
Holy Spirit, to exhort one another to an essentially 
heavenly life; they continue steadfastly in apostolic doc- 
trine and fellowship, in breaking of bread and in prayers, 
and in a peculiar and sacred sense, none say that anything 
they possess is their own, but they have all things in com- 
mon, and the Lord adds daily to the number of those who 
are being saved from sin unto holiness. Wherever these 



50 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

words reach responsive eyes and hearts, there let like- 
minded disciples gather, wait on God in prayer, and be 
content to go step by step, and God will raise up His own 
witnesses and helpers, if His people meet in the name of 
Christ, and are united in the sacred symphony of believ- 
ing prayer. 



CHAPTER V 

SPIRITUAL QUICKENINGS 

The phrase " Revival of religion " is a popular one, but 
a very doubtful one, and unscriptural beside. But behind 
the phrase lies a correct and scriptural conception and a 
historical and experimental fact: God does at times visit 
not only churches but whole communities with peculiar 
spiritual quickenings. One of these we select, partly be- 
cause it is not widely known and familiar and partly be- 
cause it teaches such valuable lessons, as to God's methods 
of working. 

" In the beginning — God/'' These sublimely signifi- 
cant words open the Book of Books, and are the key to all 
real advance in human history. Every true movement for- 
ward has but one ultimate source and fountain — God ; and 
we shall find it so, if we follow the stream far enough 
backward. No practical difficulty hinders true holy living 
and serving which is not also traceable at last, to the lack 
of the Divine factor. When God is not in all our 
thoughts; not recognized in our plans, resolves, activi- 
ties ; when His presence is not sought, His guidance is not 
real, His power is not our supreme dependence, our seem- 
ing success is but failure and our work comes to naught. 
And, whenever a genuine and permanent growth or in- 
crease is found, those who read its secret history are 
constrained to say : " The Lord hath done great things 
for us whereof we are glad." 

It is now thirty years since, in Newport, Monmouth- 
shire, England, a remarkable work of God began, the re- 
sults of which even yet appear in a manifold form. 

Si 



52 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

It was first of all noticeable how God interposes in the 
extremity of His people. Unbelief and worldliness cause 
serious forgetfulness of Him and departure from Him. 
Spiritual life declines ; and, when all our resources and de- 
pendences fail us, then, and it is sad to admit it, then alone, 
do we turn fully unto God. Church-life commonly sinks 
to its lowest ebb before the flood-tides of God sweep over 
a community. It was so in this instance. The narrative of 
this work — now out of print — records a remarkable bless- 
ing and reveals some conditions upon which such outpour- 
ing of Divine grace depends, and may elsewhere be en- 
joyed. * 

From this account, written by Rev. J. Tinson Wrenford, 
we make copious extracts : 

Prior to the commencement of this season of blessing was a 
seed-time of tears. To the inquiry, frequently made of mem- 
bers of different communions, " Are you prospering ? Is there 
much life amongst you? " the humbling reply was almost always 
returned, " Alas ! we are not as we should be : there is much 
deadness of soul : we greatly need an awakening." 

It pleased God (early in the year 1870) to put in the hearts of 
some of His children to meet together every Friday evening to 
pray, specially for a blessing on the services, teaching, and other 
means of grace on the approaching Lord's Day, and also that 
God would graciously pour out His Spirit on the church with 
which they were connected, and upon all other Christian congre- 
gations in the town. Amid various discouragements this little 
prayer-meeting was carried on week after week. At first only 
a very few assembled; but, at last, the room became inconve- 
niently crowded. The Lord gave them the spirit of prayer and 
supplication, but withheld any special or signal indication that 
their petitions would be abundantly ajnswered. They did cer- 
tainly perceive a change in their own Minister's preaching, and 
remarked upon it one to another. He himself, conscious of it, was 
led publicly to express his gratitude to God for the sustaining 
intercessions of the "praying band." At length, however, a 
deep impression was made on the minds of some who had thus 



* God's work at Newport. S. W. Partridge & Co. London. 



SPIRITUAL QUICKENINGS 53 

continued together in prayer, that the Lord was about to com- 
mence a great work in Newport. Their faith had long been ex- 
ercised: now they began to expect a gracious answer. 

Just at this time the wish was expressed by members of the 
Young Men's Christian Association (with which several of these 
praying men were connected) that a meeting for united prayer 
should be held at an early date; and an earnest invitation was 
issued to " Christian men and women of all denominations," to 
meet together at the Victoria Hall, on Thursday evening, January 
12th, 1871, "to call on the Lord (1.) for the descent of the 
Holy Spirit among them, and an increase of vital godliness ; and 
(2.) for the conversion to God of many of their fellow-towns 
folk during the coming year." This united prayer-meeting was 
attended by a large number: a most solemn spirit pervaded the 
assembly : the Lord Himself was in the midst, His presence being 
felt by many. 

There was a short season of praying and waiting again: the 
Lord " tarried " — but not long. The spirit of expectation con- 
tinued, and, indeed, became intensified. At length came the 
" earnest " of the approaching " showers of blessing." On Sun- 
day evening, February 16th, the preacher (who had himself on 
the previous day experienced a glorious deliverance from the 
buffetings of Satan, and been brought out into " a wealthy place," 
a place of sunshine and certainty never before experienced by 
him), made an earnest appeal to any who were in an anxious 
and inquiring condition of mind, to remain at the close of the 
service. Several that night found peace with God, through Jesus 
Christ. The work of " in-gathering " had commenced, although, 
as yet, but on a small scale. Several weeks passed away. Every 
Sunday night inquirers were led to Jesus : and every week it 
became more and more apparent that the Lord was preparing the 
minds of many for the momentous cry, " What must I do to be 
saved ? " 

About this time special " Mission Services " were held at the 
neighboring town of Cardiff, upon which the Divine blessing 
was evidently resting. Among the preachers was the venerable 
Robert Aitken — so long and well known in England and Scotland 
in connection with evangelizing labors. An invitation to come to 
St. Paul's, Newport, was complied with. At the foot of the 
handbills announcing ' the forthcoming special services, was 
printed the text from Malachi, " Prove me now herewith, saith 
the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, 



54 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough 
to receive it." 

A very solemn spirit of supplication and expectancy pervaded 
the preparatory prayer-meeting, on Saturday night, March 25th, 
and on the following morning, Mr. Aitken preached, taking as his 
subject the incidents narrated in the eleventh chapter of John's 
Gospel relating to the sickness, death and resurrection of Laz- 
arus. Mr. Aitken spoke of realities. The anxiety of Mary and 
Martha, their affliction, their grief, were real : the loving sym- 
pathy of Jesus towards His distressed disciples was also real : and 
so, too, His power over death and the grave. Jesus is still a real 
Savior — " the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." His 
words were, that day, addressed to many of His hearers : " The 
Master is come, and calleth for thee," — " Take ye away the 
stone." — " Lazarus, come forth! " 

In the evening Mr. Aitken again preached, from Heb. xii : 24. 
and the Spirit accompanied the word spoken. At the close an 
invitation was given to any who might be desirous of direction, 
and a large number remained, many of whom were evidently 
in a state of deep concern as to salvation: and that night, about 
seventy entered into the liberty wherewith Jesus makes His peo- 
ple free. 

On the four evenings following, Mr. Aitken preached, to crowded 
congregations, " the unsearchable riches of Christ," his sermons 
being characterized by great simplicity and fervency. With a 
power of utterance at times vehement, he besought the careless, 
the ungodly, the mere professor, to come to Jesus for pardon and 
eternal life. What he contemplated was the reality of all that 
the Gospel declared, — the reality of the sinner's necessity and 
danger, — of the all-sufficiency of the blood of Jesus, — of the love 
of the Father toward the returning prodigal, — and of the power 
of the Son of Man to forgive sins. To him sin, the judgment, 
eternity, heaven, and hell too, were terribly real. Hence the 
" reality " of all his appeals, remonstrances, and exhortations. 
The Lord owned His word upon each occasion, and every night 
crowds of penitents came for direction. The after-services were 
prolonged until nearly or quite midnight: and, even then num- 
bers lingered, as tho loth to depart without further blessing. 

He * * * * 

Thus were brought to the feet of Jesus the young and the old, 



SPIRITUAL QUICKENINGS 55 

— hardened sinners, — mere professors of religion of many years' 
standing, — backsliders, — the self-righteous — persons of almost all 
classes and descriptions. Husbands and wives, parents and 
children, brothers and sisters, in some instances, whole families, 
were brought in — in other cases the remaining members of other- 
wise godly families were reached by the Word, and led to the 
cross. 

One precious feature of these services was the real spiritual 
unanimity and unity manifested by Christians of all denomina- 
tions, from first to last. It seemed as tho the Lord's prayer was 
fulfilled, " That they all may be one." His people felt they were 
" one',' not artificially or theoretically, but actually and truly. 
Distinctive titles, indicative of divisions in the family, were for- 
gotten. Churchmen, Wesleyans, Baptists, Independents, Breth- 
ren — all met together in the house of their common Lord, not as 
" sectarians," but as " Christians; " with one heart and voice 
they prayed and praised ; with one purpose they assisted, when 
occasion served, in directing the inquiring. The Spirit of the 
Lord was a spirit of love and fellowship to them all : and Jesus 
was Himself in their midst, breathing upon them, and saying to 
them, as to the disciples of old, " Peace be unto you." 

After Mr. Aitken left Newport for his own parish, in com- 
pliance with the earnest desire of many, special services were 
continued during the five following days, and the Lord did not 
stay His hand or withhold His blessing. Every night many 
penitents were led to the cross, and found peace and joy in 
believing. Friday was a day long to be remembered. It was 
the commemoration of the crucifixion. A vast congregation as- 
sembled, and about five-and-thirty souls cast themselves upon the 
finished work of Jesus, and realized pardon and deliverance. 

Thus closed the second week of the special services. Alto- 
gether six hundred souls had been brought to the Lord. Among 
the converts were persons connected with nearly all the congrega- 
tions of the town. No attempt was made to proselytize; on the 
contrary, the converts were urged ordinarily to remain in con- 
nection with the communions to which they had formerly been 
attached. Many congregations were stirred up to pray for the 
outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon themselves, and a reviving 
work began to make itself felt among the people. Special serv- 
ices were commenced at several churches of the neighborhood; 
and the power of the Lord was present to heal and to save. 



56 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

In May, Lord Radstock delivered evangelistic addresses at 
Newport. Two halls were secured, each accommodating at least 
a thousand persons. Two addresses were given daily, and each 
evening the hall was densely crowded. His expositions and ap- 
peals — so scriptural, clear, earnest, and persuasive — were listened 
to with deep attention. The Spirit of God graciously applied the 
word, and again the Lord brought many souls " out of darkness 
and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder." 

In June, Mr. Aitken paid a second visit to Newport, accom- 
panied by his two sons, the Rev. R. W. Aitken, and the Rev. W. 
Hay Aitken. It pleased God to give His blessing to the Gospel 
message at each of the assemblies, conversions taking place every 
night. 

The congregations were extremely large. On one night, nearly 
or quite two thousand persons were crowded into the church, 
while hundreds thronged the approaches, unable to obtain ad- 
mission. The services were prolonged to a very late hour, in 
consequence of the large number of anxious ones seeking direc- 
tion. The result of this second mission was that three hundred 
souls were brought to the Lord, in connection with St. Paul's 
church alone. 

Surely no one can speak of an aggregate of one thousand pro- 
fessed conversions in a single parish within four months, without 
feelings of fervent gratitude to Him who alone can turn one 
sinner " from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan 
unto God." Many hundreds besides were awakened and led to 
Jesus, in connection with other communions, in the same period 
of time, and the work of the Lord rapidly spread to several 
parishes adjacent. But yet further testimony has to be borne 
to the goodness of God in His dealings with the people of New- 
port. He did not withdraw His hand, and cease to manifest 
His power to save, but on the contrary, proved, in the six re- 
maining months of the memorable year 1871, that He was always 
ready to respond graciously to His peoples' prayers, and to own 
their efforts for His glory in the conversion of souls. His dis- 
ciples were stirred up to multiply and extend the means hereto- 
fore employed — nothing doubting as to the results. The Young 
Men's Christian Association commenced a daily midday prayer- 
meeting at their rooms, which proved a means of spiritual refresh- 
ment and strengthening to many. They engaged the large Victoria 
Hall, for special Sunday evening services, the London Evamgeliza- 



SPIRITUAL QUICKENINGS 57 

tion Society sending down, week by week, experienced evangel- 
ists. From twelve to fifteen hundred persons were thus gathered 
on each occasion, a large proportion being not in the habit of 
frequenting any place of Divine worship. The Lord caused His 
blessing to rest upon this additional effort, and every Sunday 
souls were won to Christ. 

Most marked and evident was the result of God's work upon a 
large portion of the Newport population. The churches of 
Christ were revived. Christians were not contented with a bare 
spiritual existence. The surpassing blessedness of the " higher 
Christian life " was sought and realized by very many. The old 
condition, so far removed from that to which believers should 
attain, became distasteful, and from the heart — gladly, grate- 
fully, lovingly — proceeded the cry, "All for Jesus!" Nor could 
they who had received so much at the hands of the Lord remain 
inactive. " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " was the 
cry of many a willing worker; and, in a variety of ways, the de- 
sire to be useful found welcome exercise. And more than, per- 
haps, at any time before, Christians discovered that, notwith- 
standing all minor differences, they could " love one another, 
with a pure heart, fervently." 

The people of the world were, at the first, evidently perplexed 
by what they witnessed. The confession was again and again 
made, " I cannot understand it." In some instances utter incre- 
dulity was expressed; while not a few attributed it to a sort of 
fanatical excitement, the effects of which would soon pass away. 
The people of the world could not be expected to form a right 
judgment upon such a subject. It lay beyond them altogether; 
and their opinion of it could not possibly possess any value. To 
the unconverted, the operations of God's Spirit must ever be an 
enigma which they cannot explain. The Inspired Word tells us, 
" The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; 
for they are foolishness to him ; neither can he know them, be- 
cause they are spiritually discerned." That is decisive. 

But what a solemn season is it to a congregation — to an entire 
community — when God thus wondrously makes bare His arm 
and manifests His saving power! 

In concluding this narrative of God's great work at Newport, 
to what shall we trace it, so far as man is concerned? Shall it 
not be, first, to earnest, believing persevering prayer " for this 
very thing ; " and secondly, to the real preaching of a real Gospel t 



58 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

Our Lord's words are: "If two of you shall agree on earth as 
touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of 
my Father which is in heaven." Surely, this assurance ought to 
be sufficient. And as to the preaching, of what avail is it unless 
a real Gospel be preached? It is to be feared there is much un- 
reality in the preaching of the present day. If men are really 
sinners — perishing sinners — then away with theorizing, with spec- 
ulating, with mere " opinions " and " views." Away, too, with 
all dead " sermonizing," be it never so correctly and artistically 
done. The need of men's souls is awfully real : let them hear 
of a God really waiting to be gracious; — of a Jesus really able 
to save to the uttermost and as willing as he is able; — of an all- 
sufficient atonement really made and accepted; — of the precious 
blood of Christ, that can really cleanse from all sin ; — of a Holy 
Spirit really given to regenerate, guide, comfort, teach, and 
sanctify men's souls. Let them hear of a real heaven — a real 
hell — a real eternity; of real pardon for the guilty — real peace — 
real joy — real life; of a real approach of the sinner to the feet 
of a present Savior — of a real acceptance of Jesus, and a real 
surrender to Him, and then a real and most blessed disciple- 
ship. Away with mere ideas ! with mere " hopes " and " trusts ! " 
with all uncertainty and unreality ! 

This reality of praying, preaching, and hearing was at New- 
port, the secret of the conversion of so large a number of souls 
to Christ — through the power of the Holy Ghost. 

Why may not such a result be brought to pass, wherever 
sinners are found? Doubtless, the fear of the world's frown, 
prejudice, routine, dead formalism, a dread of " irregularities " 
and of " excitement " may hinder ; but should not all hindrances 
be surmounted for Christ's sake, and that souls may be saved? 

O for reality in the praying of God's people, reality in the 
preaching of God's ministers ! O for men to preach, and people 
to pray, who have themselves been brought into a condition of 
conscious acceptance — pardon — life; who themselves are "in 
Christ',' and who know, in their own daily experience, the sweet- 
ness of that " peace of God " which " passeth all understand- 
ing," and of that " joy " which is " unspeakable and full of 
glory." O for reality I A real lifting up of Jesus in the midst 
of perishing sinners — not that " doctrines " or " views " (be they 
ever so correct) may be set forth, discussed, demonstrated, — but 
that the guilty may draw near — may look — may live! O for the 



SPIRITUAL QUICKENINGS 59 

" real presence " of Jesus in our assemblies, — the real coming 
of the sin-burdened to Him there and then, — and the real recep- 
tion from His willing hands of a most real salvation ! 

So wrote in substance, the original narrator of God's 
work at Newport; and we seek to perpetuate and extend 
this testimony to one of the most deep-reaching and re- 
markable spiritual movements of the last half century, be- 
cause we are confident that God means the whole church 
to learn a lesson from it. 

That lesson is manifold in instruction altho it all bears 
in one direction. This solemn story of Divine dealing 
lays peculiar stress upon united prayer, a pure Gospel, 
hand to hand contact zvith souls, and simple faith in God's 
present power to save. Here was no grand array of 
agencies, no unusual and striking combinations — no far- 
famed evangelist sent for to inaugurate a revival, no ap- 
peal to novelty, nothing dramatic, spectacular, sensational. 
The whole work began in the prayers of a few fervent 
believers for the church with which they were connected, 
and particularly their own minister. Their prayers first 
brought to him new blessing and new power in preach- 
ing; then, as souls were won, the work spread to other 
congregations ; the circle of prayer expanded and became 
more inclusive; differences of doctrine and polity were 
forgotten in the bond of unity; variety of congregational 
life was merged into community of work for souls. As 
aid was needed, the most spirit-filled helpers were sought 
— and dependence was never transferred from God to 
man, but the power of a God-given Gospel and of a God- 
given Spirit constantly and reverently recognized. 

Contrast all this with modern efforts to secure revival. 
A private pamphlet, prepared by a certain evangelist as a 
guide to committees who were making ready for his com- 
ing, proved to be shockingly full of dependence on " busi- 



60 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

ness methods," such as advertising striking announce- 
ments, big posters, etc., etc. — he would have everything 
done to create a public furore in advance. This is the 
way of the world, and it is now fast becoming the way 
of the church. Boston wanted a revival ; and Mr. Moody 
must be at Tremont Temple, and Sam. Jones and Francis 
Murphy at other " temples " — men whom the people will 
flock to hear must be got — so said an acute observer, as he 
contrasted the revivals of fifty years ago with those of 
to-day. We design no reflection on either of the above- 
named evangelists, while we would emphasize the fact, that, 
for a true revival whose results are to be lasting, depend- 
ence must be first of all on God, not on man; we must 
magnify the messenger less, and the message and the 
Spirit, more. The most wide-reaching revivals of this 
century have been associated with the most unexpected 
times, methods and men — a surprise often to those through 
whom they were wrought. They have been preceded by 
fasting and prayer, beginning often in a union of prayer 
between two or three burdened souls. For instance, a 
few young men, who could find no better place to meet, 
went into a church belfry, un warmed, tho in winter, and 
there sought blessing for the congregation ; their numbers 
slowly increased until the unfinished room was too strait 
for them ; and while as yet their meeting was scarce known 
to the congregation, a mighty flood of blessing was al- 
ready outpoured. In another case a very ordinary 
preacher, speaking to his own people about parental duty 
and responsibility, felt moved to call on parents, impressed 
with their own unfaithfulness, to come from their seats 
and stand in the aisle in token of repentance and earnest 
seeking for blessing. Out of the pews moved fathers and 
mothers, until the aisles were filled and they crowded about 
the communion table — and the place was turned in a 
Bochim. 



SPIRITUAL QUICKENINGS 61 

We are getting away from dependence on ordinary 
means of grace, whenever we do not expect any widespread 
blessing on the preaching of the simple Gospel and on 
prayer, and on personal contact with souls. We must have 
several churches united, and great meetings with distin- 
guished evangelists and great choirs with far-famed Gospel 
singers, or we look for no divine outpourings. All this is 
unscriptural, unspiritual, abnormal. The Gospel would be a 
failure if it were not. And because our churches, and 
pastors, and the people at large lose confidence in the 
ordinary use of God-appointed means, and depend on ex- 
traordinary efforts alone, every interest of the churches 
is in peril. Even for missions we must have colossal 
meetings — some president, ex-president, governor, or 
other celebrity must preside — a great crowd got together 
in some way ; it matters little if the speakers are not spirit- 
filled men, if they are only attractive — or if the assemblies 
be not composed of the more devout, provided the numbers 
are large and the elite are there ! Such are the unspoken 
sentiments which too often guide the arrangements, repel 
the Spirit of God and forfeit blessing. If the church 
wants greater prosperity in the life of her members, and 
in the abundance and constancy of her benevolent offer- 
ings, there must be more honor put upon the Holy Spirit, 
more believing prayer and faith in God's promises. God's 
arm is not shortened nor His ear heavy, but there are 
modes of doing and attitudes of being which He will never 
own with the sanction of His blessing. 

Let any pastor undertake in his own congregation and 
parish work to follow a few simple rules, and see the re- 
sult: 

i. Get himself thoroughly right with God, by abandon- 
ing every known sin or doubtful indulgence, and seeking 
first of all for himself the very type of life and character 
which he craves for his people. 



62 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

2. Trust himself absolutely to the Gospel as the power 
of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation, and expect 
that God's word, faithfully preached, will not return to 
Him void, in a single instance. 

3. Give himself to prayer — giving time enough to get 
the sense of God in the closet ; and never leaving the place 
of supplication until he gets a divine vision — a new im- 
partation of life and power. 

4. Go himself to seek individuals — not depending on 
mere pulpit exhortations — but remembering that souls are 
won by individual approach, and that all such contact will 
make his preaching more personal and effective. 

5. Keep himself from all direct or indirect dependence 
on man ; avoid seeking men's applause, or looking to man's 
patronage for support and encouragement. Let him study 
the Acts of the Apostles and aim at an apostolic church 
life. 

6. Live himself a life of faith, depending on God for his 
support, daring to cut loose from the pew system and take 
his support from voluntary offerings ; and sedulously cul- 
tivate in his people the same spirit of direct leaning upon 
God. 

7. Yearn himself over a lost world — cherishing a mis- 
sionary spirit, and claiming the entrance into the holiest 
as the intercessor's place and privilege ; and educating his 
people to regard missions as the indispensable proof and 
fruit of all spiritual life. 

No man could follow seven such simple rules and 
patiently wait, without seeing a mighty work of God in 
his own life and sphere of labor. And it is only in such 
a new. level of spiritual life and character and conduct 
of God's work that the permanent revival of missions 
is to be found. The stream needs a source more abundant 
and elevated — then the channel will be full and the cur- 
rent rapid. God is speaking, and it is not in this case, 



SPIRITUAL QUICKENINGS 63 

out of the cloud — no mystery attends His utterance. All 
the great spiritual movements of the century have hinged 
on supernatural interposition in answer to believing 
prayer. If we are to have other such divine interposi- 
tions, other intercessors must be found, mighty through 
the same means which were used by Job and Samuel, 
Elijah and Daniel. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE REVIVAL OF THE PRAYER-SPIRIT 

The pivot of piety is prayer. A pivot is of double use : 
it acts as a fastener and as a center ; it holds in place, and 
it is the axis of revolution. Prayer is also the double se- 
cret: it keeps steadfast in faith, and it helps to all holy 
activity. Hence, as surely as God is lifting His people in 
these latter times to a higher level of spirituality, and 
moving them to a more unselfish and self-denying serv- 
ice, there will be new emphasis laid upon supplication, and 
especially upon intercession. 

This revival of the praying-spirit, if not first in order 
of development, is first in order of importance, for without 
it there is no advance. Generally, if not uniformly, prayer 
is both starting-point and goal to every movement in 
which are the elements of permanent progress. Whenever 
the church is aroused and the world's wickedness arrested, 
somebody has been praying. If the secret history of all 
true spiritual advance could be written and read, there 
would be found some intercessors who, like Job, Samuel, 
Daniel, Elijah, Paul and James, like Jonathan Edwards, 
William Carey, George Muller and Hudson Taylor, have 
been led to shut themselves in the secret place with God, 
and have labored fervently in prayers. And, as the start- 
ing-point is thus found in supplication and intercession, 
so the final outcome must be that God's people shall have 
learned to pray ; otherwise there will be rapid reaction and 
disastrous relapse from the better conditions secured. 

Patient and long continued study of the religious his- 

64 



REVIVAL OF THE PRAYER-SPIRIT 65 

tory of the race confirms the conviction that no seal of 
permanence is stamped upon any movement, however 
spiritual in appearance and tendency, which does not 
sooner or later show a decided revival of the praying spirit. 

There is a divine philosophy behind this fact. The 
greatest need is to keep in close touch zvith God; the great- 
est risk is the loss of the sense of the divine. In a world 
where every appeal is to the physical senses and through 
them, reality is in direct proportion to the power of con- 
tact. What we see, hear, taste, touch, or smell — what is 
material and sensible — we can not doubt. The present 
and material absorbs attention and appears solid, sub- 
stantial: but the future, the immaterial, the invisible, the 
spiritual, seem vague, distant, illusive, imaginary. Prac- 
tically the unseen has no reality and no influence with the 
vast majority of mankind. Even the unseen God is to 
them less a verity than the commonest object of vision; 
to many He, the highest verity, is really vanity, while the 
world's vanities are practically the highest verities. 

God's great corrective for this most disastrous inversion 
and perversion of the true relation of things, is prayer. 
" Enter into thy closet." There all is silence, secrecy, soli- 
tude, seclusion. Within that shut door, the disciple is left 
alone — all others shut out, that the suppliant may be shut 
in — zvith God. The silence is in order to the hearing of the 
still, small voice that is drowned in worldly clamor, and 
which even a human voice may cause to be unheard or in- 
distinct. The secrecy is in order to a meeting with Him 
who seeth in secret and is best seen in secret. The soli- 
tude is for the purpose of being alone with One who can 
fully impress with His presence only when there is no 
other presence to divert thought. The place of seclu- 
sion with God is the one school where we learn that He is, 
and is the rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. 
The closet is " not only the oratory, it is the observatory/' 



66 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

not for prayer only but for prospect — the wide-reaching, 
clear-seeing outlook upon the eternal! The decline of 
prayer is the decay of piety ; for prayer to cease altogether, 
would be spiritual death, for it is to every child of 
God the breath of life. 

To keep in close touch with God in the secret chamber 
of His presence, is the great underlying purpose of prayer. 
To speak with God is a priceless privilege ; but what shall 
be said of having and hearing Him speak with us! We 
can tell Him nothing He does not know; but He can tell 
us what no imagination has ever conceived, no research 
ever unveiled. The highest of all possible attainments 
is the knowledge of God, and this is the practical mode of 
His revelation of Himself. Even His holy word needs to 
be read in the light of the closet, if it is understood. 
" And when Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the 
congregation to speak with Him, then he heard the voice 
of one speaking unto him from off the mercy seat that 
was upon the ark of testimony, — from between the two 
cherubim, and he spoke unto him." Numbers vii., 89. 

And, where there is this close touch with God, and this 
clear insight into His name which is His nature, andv into 
His word which is His will made known, there will be a 
new power to walk with Him in holiness and work with 
Him in service. " He made known His ways unto Moses, 
His acts unto the children of Israel." The mass of the 
people stood afar off and saw His deeds, like the over- 
throwing of Pharaoh's hosts in the Red Sea; but Moses 
drew near into the thick darkness where God was, and 
in that thick darkness he found a light such as never 
shone elsewhere, and in that light he read God's secret 
plans and purposes and interpreted His wondrous ways 
of working. 

All practical power over sin and over men depends on 
maintaining closet communion. Those who abide in the 



REVIVAL OF THE PRAYER-SPIRIT 67 

secret place with God show themselves mighty to conquer 
evil, and strong to work and to war for God. They are 
the seers who read His secrets; they know His will; 
they are the meek whom He guides in judgment and 
teaches His way. They are His prophets, who speak for 
Him to others, and even forecast things to come. They 
watch the signs of the times and discern His tokens and 
read His signals. We sometimes count as mystics those 
who, like Savonarola and Catharine of Siena, claim to 
have communications from God; to have revelations of a 
definite plan of God for His Church, or for themselves 
as individuals, like the reformer of Erfurt, the founder 
of the Bristol orphanages, or the leader of the China In- 
land Mission. But may it not be that we stumble at these 
experiences because we do not have them ourselves? 
Have not many of these men and women proved by their 
lives that they were not mistaken, and that God has led 
them by a way that no other eye could trace? 

But, for close contact with the living God in prayer, 
there is another reason that rises perhaps to a still higher 
level. Prayer not only puts us in touch with God, and 
gives knowledge of Him and His ways, but it imparts to 
us His power. It is the touch which brings virtue out of 
Him. It is the hand upon the pole of a celestial battery, 
which charges us with His secret life, energy, efficiency. 
Things which are impossible with man are possible with 
God, and with a man in whom God is. Prayer is the secret 
of imparted power from God, and nothing else can take 
its place. Absolute weakness follows the neglect of secret 
communion with God — and the weakness is the more de- 
plorable, because it is often unsuspected, especially when 
one has never yet known what true power is. We see 
men of prayer quietly achieving results of the most sur- 
prising character. They have the calm of God, no hurry, 
or worry, or flurry ; no anxiety or care, no excitement or 



68 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

bustle — they do great things for God, yet they are little 
in their own eyes ; they carry great loads, and yet are not 
weary nor faint; they face great crises, and yet are not 
troubled. And those who know not what treasures of 
wisdom and strength and courage and power are hidden 
in God's pavilion, wonder how it is. They try to account 
for all this by something in the man, or his talent, or tact, 
or favoring circumstances. Perhaps they try to imitate 
such a career by securing the patronage of the rich and 
mighty, or by dependence on organization, or fleshly en- 
ergy — or what men call " determination to succeed " — 
they bustle about, labor incessantly, appeal for money and 
cooperation, and work out an apparent success, but there 
is none of that Power of God in it which can not be imi- 
tated. They compass themselves about with sparks, but 
there is no fire of God; they build up a great structure, 
but it is wood, hay, stubble ; they make a great noise, but 
God is not in the clamor. Like a certain preacher who 
confessed that, when he felt no kindling of inspired 
thought and feeling, he walked up and down the pulpit, 
and shouted with all his might — they make up for the lack 
of divine unction and spiritual action by carnal confidence 
and vehemence. There is a show of energy, resolution, 
endeavor, and often of results, but behind all this a lament- 
able and nameless deficiency. 

Nothing is at once so undisputable and so overawing 
as the way in which a few men of God live in Him and He 
in them. The fact is, that, in the disciple's life, the funda- 
mental law is " not I but Christ in me." In a grandly true 
sense there is but one Worker, one Agent, and He divine ; 
and all other so-called " workers " are instruments and 
instruments only, in His hands. The first quality of a 
true instrument is passivity. An active instrument would 
defeat its own purpose ; all its activity must be dependent 
upon the man who uses it. Sometimes a machine be- 



REVIVAL OF THE PRAYER-SPIRIT 69 

comes uncontrollable, and then it not only becomes use- 
less, but it works damage and disaster. What would a 
man do with a plane, a knife, an axe, a bow, that had any 
will of its own and moved of itself? Does it mean noth- 
ing when, in the Word of God, we meet so frequently the 
symbols of passive service — the rod, the staff, the saw, 
the hammer, the sword, the spear, the threshing instru- 
ment, the flail, and, in the New Testament, the vessel? 
Does it not mean that a willful man God can not use ; that 
the first condition of service is that the will is to be so lost 
in God's as that it presents no resistance to His, no persist- 
ence beyond or apart from His, and no assistance to 
His? George Muller well taught that we are to wait to 
know whether a certain work is God's; then whether it is 
ours, as being committed to us ; but even then we need to 
wait for God's way and God's time to do His own work, 
otherwise we rush precipitately into that which He means 
us to do, but only at His signal, or we go on doing when 
He calls a halt. Many a true servant of God has, like 
Moses, begun before his Master was ready, or kept on 
working when his Master's time was past. 

There is one aspect of prayer to which particular atten- 
tion needs to be called, because it is strongly emphasized 
in the Word, and because it is least used in our daily life, 
namely, intercession. 

This word, and what underlies it, has a very unique use 
and meaning in Scripture. It differs from supplication, 
first in this, that supplication has mainly reference to the 
suppliant and his own supply; and again because inter- 
cession not only concerns others, but largely implies the 
need of direct divine interposition. There are many 
prayers that allow our cooperation in their answer, and 
imply our activity. When we pray, " Give us this day 
our daily bread," we go to work to earn the bread for 
which we pray. That is God's law. When we ask God to 



70 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

deliver us from the evil one, we expect to be sober and 
vigilant, and resist the adversary. This is right; but our 
activity in many matters hinders the full display of God's 
power, and hence also our impression of His working. 
And the deepest convictions of God's prayer-answering 
are wrought in cases where in the nature of things we 
are precluded from all activity in promoting the result. 

It will, therefore, be seen that the objection which often 
hinders our praying, or praying in confidence of results — 
namely, that we are in that particular case entirely help- 
less to effect any result — is the grand reason for praying ; 
and when such praying is answered, the evidence of God's 
working is irresistible. It is when we are in trouble and 
refuge fails us, when we are at our wits' end, that it be- 
comes plain that He saves us out of our distresses. Un- 
belief is always ready to suggest that it is not a strange 
thing if a prayer for the conversion of another is an- 
swered, when we have been bending every energy toward 
the winning of that soul ; and we find it very hard to say 
how far the result is traceable to God and how far to man. 
But when one can do nothing but cry to God, and yet He 
works mightily to save, unbelief is silenced, or compelled 
to confess, this is the finger of God. 

The Word of God teaches us that intercession with 
God is most necessary in cases where man is powerless. 
Elijah is held before us as a great intercessor and the one 
example given in his prayer for rain. Yet in this case 
he could only pray; there was nothing else he could do 
to unlock the heavens after three years and a half of 
drought. And is there not a touch of divine poetry in the 
form in which the answer came? The rising cloud took 
the shape of " a man's hand," as though to assure the 
prophet how God saw and heeded the suppliant hand 
raised to Him in prayer! Daniel was powerless to move 
the king or reverse his decree ; all he could do was to " de- 



REVIVAL OF THE PRAYER-SPIRIT 71 

sire mercies of the God of heaven concerning the secret ; " 
and it was because he could do nothing else, could not 
even guess at the interpretation when he knew not even 
the dream — that it was absolutely sure that God had in- 
terposed, and so even the heathen king himself saw, felt 
and confessed. 

All through history certain crises have arisen when the 
help of man was vain. To the formal Christian, the carnal 
disciple, the unbelieving soul, this fact, that there is noth- 
ing that man could do, makes prayer seem almost a folly, 
perhaps a farce, a waste of breath. But, to those who best 
know God, man's extremity is God's opportunity, and hu- 
man helplessness is the argument for praying. Invariably 
those whose faith in prayer is supernaturally strong, are 
those who have most proved that God has wrought by 
their own conscious compulsory cessation of all their own 
effort as vain and hopeless. 

George Miiller set out to prove to a half-believing 
church and an unbelieving world that God does directly 
answer prayer ; and to do this he purposely abstained from 
all the ordinary methods of appeal, or of active effort to 
secure the housing, clothing, and feeding of thousands of 
orphans. Rev. J. Hudson Taylor undertook to put mis- 
sionaries into Inland China, by dependence solely upon 
God, not only asking no collections, but refusing them in 
connection with public meetings. He and his co-workers 
are accustomed to lay all wants before the Lord, whether 
of men or money, and expect the answer, and it comes. 
The study of missionary history reveals the fact that, at 
the very times when, in utter despair of any help but 
God's, there has been believing prayer, the interposition 
of God has been most conspicuously seen — how could it 
be most conspicuous except amid such conditions ? 

One of the most encouraging tokens of God's moving 
in our days is, therefore, the revival of the prayer-spirit, 



7* FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

which is noticeable in the numerous " prayer circles " and 
"prayer covenants/' formed within ten years past. In 
Great Britain particularly, intercession has been unusually 
emphasized of late. The Keswick movement has been 
more conspicuous for prayer than for anything else. The 
whole atmosphere of the convention has been laden with 
its fragrance, and the intervals between the meetings are 
very largely filled up with private supplication, or with 
smaller gatherings of two or three or more who seek 
further converse with God. There are organizations for 
prayer alone — some whose members do not know each 
other, or meet in common assemblies, but whose only bond 
is a covenant of daily supplication for one another and for 
objects of mutual interest. Any one who will read the 
two volumes in which is told that wonderful story of the 
China Inland Mission, will find that beyond all else, be- 
lieving prayer is brought to the front, as the condition of 
all success. At the Mission Home, in London, from morn- 
ing till night there is one sacrifice of praise and prayer; 
and, at least once a week, with the map of China in full 
sight, the various missionaries and stations are mentioned 
by name, individually, the peculiar circumstances being 
made known, which incite to earnest, sympathetic suppli- 
cation. And thus, both in larger and smaller circles of 
prayer, the spirit of intercession has a marked revival. 

This is doubtless the most hopeful sign as yet apparent 
above the horizon, and it is a signal, calling God's people 
to a new life of unselfish and believing prayer. Every 
church ought to be a prayer circle; but this will not be, 
while we are waiting for the whole body to move together. 
The mass of professing Christians have too little hold on 
God to enter into such holy agreement. To all who yearn 
for a revival of the prayer-spirit, we suggest that, in every 
church a prayer circle be formed, without regard to num- 
bers. Let the pastor unite with himself any man or 



REVIVAL OF THE PRAYER-SPIRIT 73 

woman in whom he discerns peculiar spiritual life and 
power, and, without publicity or any effort to enlarge the 
little company, begin to lay before God any matter de- 
manding special divine guidance and help. Without any 
public invitation — which might only draw unprepared 
people into a formal association — it. will be found that the 
Holy Spirit will enlarge the circle as He fits others, or 
finds others fit, to enter it — and thus quietly and without 
observation the little company of praying souls will grow 
as fast as God means it shall. Let a record be kept of 
every definite petition laid before God — for such a prayer 
circle should be only with reference to very definite mat- 
ters — and as God interposes, let the record of his inter- 
position be carefully kept, and become a new inspiration 
to believing prayer. Such a resort to united intercession 
would transform a whole church, remove dissensions, rec- 
tify errors, secure harmony and unity, and promote Holy 
Ghost administration and spiritual life and growth, beyond 
all other possible devices. If in any church the pastor is 
not a man who could or would lead in such a movement, 
let two or three, who feel the need, meet and begin by 
prayer for him. In this matter there should be no waiting 
for anybody else; if there be but one believer who has 
power with God, let such an one begin intercessory prayer. 
God will bring to the side of such an intercessor others 
whom He has made ready to act as supplicators. 

Not long since, in a church in Scotland, a minister sud- 
denly began to preach with unprecedented power. The 
whole congregation was aroused and sinners marvelously 
saved. He himself did not understand the new endue- 
ment. In a dream of the night it was strangely suggested 
to him that the whole blessing was traceable to one poor 
old woman who was stone deaf, but who came regularly to 
church, and being unable to hear a word, spent all the time 
in prayer for the preacher and individual hearers. In the 



74 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

biography of C. G. Finney similar facts are recorded of 
" Father Nash," Abel Cleary, and others. In Newport, 
England, is a praying circle of twelve men, who have met 
for thirty years every Saturday night to pray for definite 
blessings. Not one death occurred in their number during 
a whole quarter century. The first impulse leading to this 
weekly meeting was interest in Mr. Spurgeon's ministry. 
They felt that with his great access to men he had need of 
peculiar power from above, and on the Sabbath following 
their first meeting, he began to preach with such increased 
unction as attracted general notice. 

Examples might be multiplied indefinitely. But the one 
thing we would make prominent is this : that above all else, 
God is calling His people to new prayer. He wills that 
" men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without 
wrath and doubting;" that, first of all, supplication, 
prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all 
men. * And if this be done, first of all, every other most 
blessed result will follow. God waits to be asked. He has 
the fountains of blessing which He puts at the disposal of 
His praying saints. They are sealed fountains to the un- 
godly and the unbelieving. But there is one Key that un- 
locks even heaven's gates ; one secret that puts connecting 
channels between those eternal fountains and ourselves, 
that key, that secret, is prevailing prayer. 

In London an enterprising newspaper has a private wire 
connecting with Edinburgh, in order to command the latest 
freshest news from the Scottish Athens. One night the 
clerk, who was out to collect local items, returned late and 
could not get in — he had forgotten to take his night-key. 
He thought a moment. It was of no use to knock at the 
door — the only fellow-clerk in the building was too far 
away to hear him. He stepped to a neighboring telegraph 
office and sent a message to Edinburgh : " Tell that 

* i Tim. ii, i, 8. 



REVIVAL OF THE PRAYER-SPIRIT 75 

I am at the street door and can not get in." In twenty 
minutes the door was unfastened and he was at his desk in 
the office. The shortest way to get at the man in the 
fourth story was by Edinburgh. How. long will it take us 
to learn that our shortest route to the man next door is by 
way of God's throne! God has no greater controversy 
with His people to-day than this, that, with boundless 
promises to believing prayer, there are so few who actually 
give themselves unto intercession. 

" And there is none that calleth upon Thy name, 
That stirreth up himself to take hold of Thee." — Isa. lxiv, 7. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE PRAYER-BASIS OF MISSION WORK 

It is of the highest consequence to recognize that the 
work of missions has, as its central encouragement and in- 
spiration, the promise of a supernatural presence and 
power. " Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of 
the age," means nothing less than that, in a special sense, 
an exceptional manner, the omnipresent One will accom- 
pany the march of the missionary band. 

This is the most emphatic of all the arguments for mis- 
sions, and the all-sufficient compensation for the self-sac- 
rifices which a true missionary life always and necessarily 
implies and involves. It is, however, a truth that belongs 
to the highest altitude both of divine teaching and human 
experience, that the one way for man to command the su- 
pernatural lies through the closet. Real prayer is a divine 
inbreathing and therefore has a divine outreaching; it is 
of the essence of the miraculous and works essentially 
supernatural results. 

The power of prayer is the perpetual sign of God's work- 
ing in the human soul and among men, the standing 
miracle of the ages. Upon no one thing does the word of 
God so frequently and heavily lay the stress of both in- 
junction and invitation; to no one agency or instrumen- 
tality are effects so marvelous both assured and attributed. 
Nothing marks the decline from primitive piety, and the 
virtual apostasy of the church, more than the secondary 
place assigned to prayer both in the individual life and in 
public worship, and the formalism that substitutes litur- 

76 



PRAYER-BASIS OF MISSION WORK 77 

gical, or, still worse, mechanically tame, stale, lifeless say- 
ing for prayers, for true prayers found first of all in the 
suppliant's heart. 

Prayer can be interpreted only by conceding a super- 
human element. While much of the benefit and blessing 
that comes to praying souls may doubtless be traced to 
natural and secondary causes, in numberless other cases 
we are compelled either to deny the fact of the answer or 
else to admit a supernatural factor. If we deny divine in- 
terposition, there are events and experiences in the actual 
history of every praying soul which, without that inter- 
position, remain as inexplicable as the deliverance of the 
three holy children from the furnace, or of Daniel from 
the den of lions. 

Jonathan Edwards lived on the verge of the unseen 
world, and was in peculiar contact and communication 
with it. From ten years of age, his prayers were aston- 
ishing, alike for the faith they exhibited and the effects 
they wrought or secured. The intellect of Edwards re- 
minds of a cherub, and his heart, of a seraph ; and, there- 
fore, we can distrust neither his self-knowledge nor his 
candor. His communion with God was neither a dream 
of an excited fancy nor an invention of an impostor. Yet 
it was so rapt and rapturous, that the extraordinary views 
which he obtained of the glory, love and grace of the Son 
of God so overcame him that for an hour he would be 
flooded with tears, weeping aloud. Such prayer brought 
power not less wonderful than that of Peter at Pentecost. 
Edwards's sermon at Enfield, on " Sinners in the hands of 
an angry God," terrible as it was, and delivered without a 
gesture, was clothed with such unction that it produced 
unparalleled effects. Hearers leaped to their feet and' 
clasped the pillars of the meeting-house, as if they literally 
felt their feet sliding into ruin. 

God chose that devout man, in the midst of an apostasy 



7 8 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

from God that was well-nigh a wreck of religious faith in 
England and America, to turn, by his prayers, the entire 
tide of church-life from channels of worldliness and wick- 
edness into a new course of evangelistic and missionary 
activity. In 1747, Jonathan Edwards pealed out his trum- 
pet call, summoning the whole Christian Church to prayer. 
In his remarkable tract in which he pleads for a " visible 
union of God's people in an extraordinary prayer," he re- 
fers to the day of fasting and prayer observed the year 
previous at Northampton, and which was followed that 
same night by the utter dispersion of the French Armada, 
under the Duke d'Anville ; and Edwards adds, " This is the 
nearest parallel with God's wonderful works of old in times 
of Moses, Joshua and Hezekiah, of any that have been in 
these latter ages of the world." 

That trumpet peal to universal prayer, one hundred and 
fifty-three years ago, marks a turning point especially in 
modern missions. Edwards felt that only direct divine in- 
terposition would meet the emergency, and his whole tract 
shows that he expected such divine working in answer to 
believing prayer. The results that followed reveal anew 
beyond a doubt, that, if the Church of God will but pray as 
she ought, every other needed blessing and enlargement 
will come to her missionary work. To emphasize this truth 
and get an intelligent survey of the state of the world and 
the church as it was then; this only would reveal the 
desperate darkness that drove disciples to the mountain 
tops for communion with God and kept them on their 
knees till the light broke forth as the morning. 

At the opening of the eighteenth century spiritual deso- 
lation was so widespread, that a prospect more hopelessly 
dreary has not alarmed true disciples since the dark ages. 
Hume, Gibbon, Bolingbroke, the giants of infidelity, were 
acknowledged leaders in English society. In France, Vol- 
taire, Rousseau and Madame de Pompadour ruled at the 



PRAYER-BASIS OF MISSION WORK 79 

royal court, and at the tribune of the people. In Germany, 
Frederick the Great, the friend and companion of Voltaire, 
flaunted his deistic opinions and dealt out to his antagonists 
kicks with his thick boots. " Flippancy and frivolity in 
the church, deism in theology, lasciviousness in the novel 
and the drama," these were the conditions that prevailed 
in England, which Isaac Taylor declared was " in a condi- 
tion of virtual heathenism/' while Samuel Blair affirmed 
that in America " religion lay a-dying." 

And what was the pulpit of those days doing to offset 
this awful condition of apostasy ? Nothing ! Natural the- 
ology without a single distinctive doctrine of Christianity ; 
cold, formal morality or barren orthodoxy constituted the 
staple teaching both in the established church and the dis- 
senting chapel. The best sermons, so-called, were only 
ethical essays, a thousand of which held not enough gospel 
truth to guide one soul to the Savior of sinners. There 
seemed to be a tacit agreement to let the devil alone; in- 
stead of Satan being chained so that he could work no 
damage, it was the church that was in bonds so that she 
could work no deliverance. The grand and weighty truths 
for whose sake Hooper and Latimer dared the stake, and 
Baxter and Bunyan went to jail, seemed like the relics of 
a remote past, curiosities of archaeology and paleontology. 
A flood of irreligion, immorality, infidelity, flooded the very 
domain of Christendom. Collins and Tindall stigmatized 
Christianity as a system of priestcraft. Woolston declared 
the miracles of the Bible to be allegories and myths, and 
Whiston denounced them as impositions and frauds. By 
Clark and Priestly Arianism and Socinianism were openly 
taught, and to heresy was thus given the currency of fash- 
ionable sanction. Blackstone, the legal commentator, went 
the rounds from church to church till he had heard every 
clergyman of note in London; and his melancholy testi- 
mony was that not one discourse had he heard among 



80 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

them all which had in it more Christianity than the writings 
of Cicero, or from which he could gather whether the 
preacher were a disciple of Confucius or Zoroaster, Ma- 
homet or Christ! 

Archbishop Seeker in one phrase gave as " the char- 
acteristic of the age " an " open disregard of religion." 
The bishops themselves led the van in the hosts of the. 
worldly and gay ; Archbishop Cornwallis gave at Lambeth 
Palace balls and routs so scandalous that even the king 
interfered. It was jocosely said that the best way to stop 
Whitefield in his work of reform was to put on his head 
the bishop's miter. 

It was such a state of religion and morals, of corrupted 
doctrine and perverted practice, that bowed true disciples 
in great humiliation and drove them to God in sheer 
despair of human help. They felt as David did when he 
wrote the twelfth Psalm: 

" Help, Lord ! for the godly man ceaseth, 
For the faithful fail from among the children of men.'* 

Over the entire extent of the Christian Church there 
began to be little praying circles of devout souls who en- 
treated God once more to pluck His hand out of His bosom 
and show Himself mighty to deliver. 

Of such a character was that little gathering which, 
eighteen years before Edwards blew that clarion blast, be- 
gan to meet in Lincoln College, Oxford ; when John Wes- 
ley and his brother Charles, Mr. Morgan and Mr. Kirk- 
ham, burdened with the awful condition of an apostate 
church, conferred and prayed together for such a reviving 
as could come only from the breath of God. Six years 
after these meetings began, there were only fourteen who 
came together; but, out of that humble meeting where 
prayer to God was the entire dependence, was born Meth- 
odism, the mightiest movement of modern times, save only 



PRAYER-BASIS OF MISSION WORK 81 

the Moravian, in the direction of evangelical faith and 
evangelistic work. 

The God of prayer heard these suppliant voices, and 
Whitefield and the Wesley brothers began to preach with 
tongues burning with pentecostal flames. They were re- 
sisted by a rigid, frigid church ; but driven into the open 
fields and commons, they so reached the masses of the 
people as they could never have reached them within chapel 
walls. 

At this precise juncture, Jonathan Edwards, in America, 
profoundly impressed with the dreadful condition of both 
the world and the church, urged upon the churches of this 
country concerted prayer; and across the seas another 
trumpet peal echoed his own, summoning all disciples to 
unite in special prayer " for the effusion of God's spirit 
upon all the churches, and upon the whole habitable earth." 
The era of prayer was now fairly inaugurated. In Eng- 
land, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, and throughout New 
England and the Middle States, believers began to pray 
for a specific blessing and to come together for united sup- 
plication. 

We have not space to trace minutely the remarkable in- 
terpositions of God; but a few salient facts stand boldly 
out in the historic page. In 1780, under the influence of the 
Haldanes, Andrew Fuller, Rowland Hill, Sutcliffe and 
others like them, there came pulsing over the church the 
mighty tidal wave of genuine revival. William Grim- 
shaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, 
Henry Venn, Walker of Truro, James Henvey, Toplady, 
Fletcher of Madeley — these are some of the men that be- 
longed in this grand apostolical succession that during this 
period of reformation kept feeding and fanning these re- 
vival fires. How was it that, in such numbers and at 
such a crisis, they were raised up to stem the tide that 
with resistless momentum threatened to sweep away every 



82 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

landmark of religion and morality? But one answer can 
be given ; Jehovah of Hosts was conspicuously answering 
prayer. The full significance of those concerted prayers 
can never be fully known until eternity opens its august 
doors and unfolds its sealed books. But we can even now 
trace to those prayers, at the darkest hour of modern 
church history, the inauguration of the new era of uni- 
versal missions. Out of these prayers came the establish- 
ment of the monthly concert of prayer in 1784, the found- 
ing of the first distinctively foreign missionary society of 
England in 1792, the consecration of William Carey to 
Oriental missions in 1793, with all the wonderful work of 
that pioneer who, with his co-laborers, secured the transla- 
tion of the Word of God into 40 different tongues, and 
the circulation of 200,000 copies, providing vernacular 
Bibles for 500,000,000 souls, within the space of a half- 
century ! 

These are only the results of those prayers traced in 
one direction. All that modern missions have wrought on 
four continents and the isles of the sea ; all the doors that 
have opened into every new land of pagan, papal, heathen 
or Moslem peoples; all the hundreds of organizations, 
formed to cover the earth with this golden network of love 
and labor; all the hundreds of translations of the Bible 
into the tongues and dialects of mankind ; all the planting 
of churches, mission stations, Christian homes, schools, 
colleges, hospitals, printing-presses and the vast machinery 
of gospel effort; all the thousands of laborers who have 
offered to go and have gone to the far-off fields; all the 
Christian literature created to supply the demand of awak- 
ening minds hitherto sleeping the sleep of intellectual stag- 
nation ; who shall say what is not to be attributed to those 
prayers that from Lincoln College, Paulerspury and 
Northampton went up to God a century and a half ago ! 

To those prayers even the details of missionary history 



PRAYER-BASIS OF MISSION WORK 83 

are closely linked. For example, Asia was a continent, 
to be evangelized. To reach its teeming populations the 
strategy of the gospel struck at the heart of the continent 
and sought to pierce its vital, working center, India. Eng- 
land was already there in the East India Company, but that 
company was virtually the implacable foe to missions, for 
the unselfish and uncompromising morality of the gospel 
interfered with a lawless greed that subordinated every- 
thing to trade; and so India was practically closed to the 
gospel. The presence there of representatives of an en- 
lightened Christian government had erected new barriers 
more insurmountable than any that existed before Eliza- 
beth signed that primitive Trading Company's charter! 

But prayer for the " whole habitable globe " included 
India. And God had heard those prayers and was mov- 
ing. He had given Britain territorial possessions and po- 
litical rights in India, and a scepter over 200,000,000 
people. Time was close at hand when in this central 
stronghold of Brahminism, this central field of Oriental 
missions, Christianity, through that sordid East India 
Company, was to get a firm foothold. England had an in- 
cipient empire in the Indies ; this made necessary an open 
line of communication with the home government in order 
to maintain an open highway of travel, traffic and trans- 
portation between London and Calcutta. Hence, in the 
providence of God came that political necessity which ulti- 
mately determined the attitude of every nation along that 
highway that was opened through the Mediterranean and 
the Red Sea. All along that roadway, through great 
waters, the bordering nations must, if not favorable to 
Christian missions, at least be neutral. 

Those who care to look more minutely into the provi- 
dential process by which a highway for the gospel was 
prepared will note how, within ten years after that trumpet 
call of Edwards, the battle of Plassey occurred, which de- 



84 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

serves to rank among the decisive battles of the world. 
Robert Clive, the scourge of God, in that conflict settled 
it that Protestantism, and not Buddha nor the Pope, was 
to rule in India. Then just one hundred years later the 
Sepoy rebellion swung the great English power in India 
to the side of Christian missions and put the great heart 
of Asia under control of the foremost Protestant and mis- 
sionary nation of Europe, if not of the world. We have 
given this one instance with some fullness of detail^ as one 
example of prayer, swaying the balance of national his- 
tory and a world's destiny. But even yet only the bare out- 
lines have been indicated of that grand march of events 
which is even now in progress, and whose magnificent 
movement, if not originated, was marvelously accelerated, 
by the bugle call of the angel of the Lord in response to 
prevailing prayer ! 

The whole basis of successful missionary work is to be 
found in believing and importunate prayer. Whatever en- 
thusiastic appeals are made to human ears, however com- 
pact and business-like our Missionary Boards and organ- 
izations, however thorough and systematic our methods 
of gathering offerings, it depends primarily and ultimately 
on prayer, whether the appeals really move men, whether 
the organizations prove effective, whether the offerings 
are cheerful and ample. The men, means and measures 
for a world's evangelization have always been hopelessly 
inadequate and disproportionate to a world's extent and 
needs ; they always will be, while selfishness is lord of even 
nominal disciples. But what we need is supernatural 
power; then one shall chase a thousand and two put ten 
thousand to flight. And this divine working comes only 
in answer to united prayer. No time is lost in waiting for 
the Holy Spirit and the tongues of fire. Fire means light 
and heat for the believer, so that he shall no longer walk 
in the darkness of doubt or the chill of indifference. Fire 



PRAYER-BASIS OF MISSION WORK 85 

means a consuming force that burns away, melts, subdues, 
all obstacles to human souls. Better, therefore, than any 
new standard of living and giving is a new experience of 
praying. As surely as believers take their stand on the 
promises and plead with God as Jacob did, they shall be- 
come like him, princes of God, and shall prevail. For a 
praying church a dying world is waiting. 

Missionary history shows the value of the prayer for la- 
borers. 

"Pray ye therefore the Lord of the Harvest that He 
would thrust forth laborers into His Harvest." 

The grand inspiration to all missions, the world over, 
and to all missionary spirit and sacrifice in the Church, 
is Prayer ? not appeal to men, but appeal to God. 

This is but one of those injunctions and promises which 
fix our eyes upon Prayer as the great motor in the king- 
dom of God. Again we affirm it : Prayer has turned every 
great crisis in the kingdom. It can bring men, it can fur- 
nish money, it can supply all the means and material of 
war. Yet this, the grandest of all the springs of missionary 
activity, is that on which the least practical dependence is 
placed in our missionary machinery. 

Let us look at the bearing of believing supplication upon 
our supply of laborers for the harvest field. 

The fascination about all true Christian work is that, 
first of all, it is God's work. The true child of God longs 
to find his place and sphere in that grander sphere of divine 
activity where he is permitted to share co-operation with 
God. Now all true adaptation to our work depends on a 
higher plan than ours. God's work reaches through the 
ages and spans even the eternities. Every workman must 
have his fitness for his particular work, and that fitness 
must be of God, for the workman cannot know what pe- 
culiar demands that work will make upon him until he 
gets at work, and then it is too late to prepare. Prepara- 



86 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

tion must be carried on earlier, and, because no man can 
tell with certainty what he is to be called to do, or where 
he is to be placed, the only hope and faith that can solve 
the perplexity must fasten on the Providence of God. He 
who foresees and foreknows what the work is to be must 
predestine and prepare the worker to do it. 

Does He not? Who that studies history — which is the 
mere record of God's dealings with humanity — can not see 
that a divine plan is at work ? that in the great crisis of af- 
fairs He brings forth some man or woman singularly pre- 
pared, unconsciously prepared, often unwillingly prepared, 
for the work and the sphere ? so that, as in the building of 
the temple, no sound of axe, hammer or tool of iron was 
heard while it was in building, so again there is no need 
of any adaptation after the man and his work meet — they 
mutually fit as stone does stone, or timber does timber, 
where the work has been properly done in the quarry and 
in the shops. 

Many a man has no chance or need to adapt himself to 
his " environment." One of the great objections to " evolu- 
tion " is found in the frequent examples of preadaptation 
with which nature abounds. A caterpillar that lives on 
the earth, crawls on its own belly, eats leaves and refuse, — 
at a certain stage of its history enters the chrysalis state. 
It is to emerge from its cocoon a winged butterfly, hence- 
forth to soar, not creep or crawl, to sip the honey from 
the dainty nectaries of flowers. Here is a wholly new 
experience, of which the life of the worm furnished no 
earnest. Now if you run a sharp blade down the length 
of the cocoon, and cut through the cuticle of the animal 
while yet in the chrysalis state, you will find all the peculiar 
organs of the future butterfly or moth mysteriously en- 
folded beneath that skin. How are they to be accounted 
for? That caterpillar no more knew its future state and 
needs than the unborn infant knew its coming wants. It 



PRAYER-BASIS OF MISSION WORK 87 

could not be said to adapt its organs to its new life after 
its emergence from the cocoon, for those organs were all 
there, long before the moment of that new birth. And so 
the reverent Christian scientist accounts for the preadapta- 
tion by a higher evolution in the plan of a Creator. 

Just so we discern in history preadaptations that defy 
any explanation without faith in the providence of God. 
Men themselves have been undergoing a peculiar training 
for ten, twenty, thirty, forty years, which has found its 
explanation only when God has brought them and their 
preordained work together! Moses, in the palace and 
court of Pharaoh, from the hour when he was taken out 
of the basket of bulrushes, was unconsciously preparing 
to become God's great agent in Israel's deliverance and 
organization: the fitness of that man as leader and law 
giver, poet and prophet, organizer and administrator, is so 
exact and marvelous that it compels belief in God. Luther 
at Erfurt and Wurtemberg, Knox in Scotland, Calvin in 
Switzerland, John Wesley and Charles Wesley in Eng- 
land, Jonathan Edwards in New England, William Carey 
at Hackleton, Adoniram Judson in Williamstown, John 
Hunt at Hykeham Moor, John E. Clough studying civil 
engineering, David Livingstone poring over Dick's " Si- 
derial Heavens," Henry M. Stanley reporting for the New 
York Herald — these are examples of men whom God was 
unconsciously making ready for a special work of which 
they had no conception, and for which they could make 
no intelligent preparation. 

Who was it that not only raised up those six remarkable 
men and missionaries — Schwartz, Carey, Judson, Mor- 
rison, Wilson and Duff — but raised them up in the same 
age and epoch of missions? All of them from humble life, 
but of varied nationalities, of different denominations, 
Lutheran, Baptist, Independent, Presbyterian ; who was it 
gave to all of them essentially the tastes and the training 



88 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

of scholars, tho their early surroundings in several cases 
specially forbade; who was it that singularly fitted them 
to be theologians, translators, philologists, scientists and 
teachers? Who was it that so singularly adjusted the plan 
of these several lives that each spent some forty years 
among the natives of India, Burmah or China ; passed the 
advanced limit of three-score years and ten, and died re- 
joicing not only in their labors but in the fruit of their 
labors ? * 

Sometimes, indeed, it suddenly appears to the man him- 
self that the adaptation somehow exists ; but it is only the 
consciousness of a pre-fitness. John Hunt has been com- 
pared to the forest bird, which, hatched in the 
nest of some common domestic fowl, moves about 
restless among the pullets and ducks in the barn- 
yard, until some day, finding its pinions grown 
long and strong, and instinctively conscious that the 
air, not the earth or the water, is its native element, 
suddenly soars from the ground and makes straight and 
swift flight toward the freedom of the woods and the 
higher realms of the atmosphere ! Of how many of God's 
workmen might similar words be written? And what new 
hope does it impart to missions as the enterprise of the 
Church to know that while God buries the workmen He 
carries on the work ! No gap ever occurs that He cannot 
fill. How often a desponding spirit cries, when such a 
man falls as John Williams of Erromanga, or Mackay of 
Uganda, or Livingstone at Lake Bangweolo, or Keith Fal- 
coner at Aden, "How shall that man's place be filled?" 
But God has another man ready, and sometimes two to 
take the place of one. And so the work goes on. 

The subject will bear indefinite expansion ; but our ob- 
ject is only to sound once again the grand key-note of all 
missions: Believing Prayer. The field is wide — world 

*See Dr. George Smith. 



PRAYER-BASIS OF MISSION WORK 89 

wide. The Harvest is great, but the laborers are few. 
How are they to be supplied? There is but one way au- 
thorized in Scripture : " Pray ye therefore the Lord of the 
Harvest that He would send forth laborers into His Har- 
vest." Nothing else can fill these vacant fields with an ade- 
quate supply of workmen. Education cannot do it. A 
great deal of our education is leading young men and 
women away from mission fields. " The spectacles of the 
intellect," says Dr. David Brown, " are binocular." There 
is a tendency in all intellectual culture, as in the gathering 
of earthly riches, to make us practically Godless. Men 
become purse-proud by accumulating wealth, and brain- 
proud by accumulating learning. If God does not hear 
prayer and give learning and culture a divine direction, a 
heavenly anointing, our colleges will only raise up a gen- 
eration of sceptics. Our appeals and arguments will not 
give the Church missionaries ; unless the demonstration 
of the Spirit is added to the demonstration of logic, no con- 
viction will result that leads to consecration — that higher 
logic of life. 

And, when workmen are on the Held, it is the same 
prayer that must secure to the word they preach " free 
course," so that it is glorified. When the Church at Anti- 
och, praying and fasting, sent forth Barnabas and Saul 
on that first missionary tour, the Church kept praying; 
and, in answer to prayer, doors, great and effectual, opened 
before them, and repentance unto life was granted unto 
the Gentiles, and mighty signs and wonders were wrought 
by the hands of those primitive pioneer missionaries. 

We have heard many things said in depreciation of J. 
Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission. We have 
heard his whole work stigmatized as " without a founda- 
tion," a " wild scheme," " impracticable," " lacking all 
elements of stability and permanence ; " we have heard said 
of it, that it " gets men and women into Inland China, 



90 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

and then leaves them there to starve," etc. One thing is 
very remarkable about it : it sets us all an example of faith 
in God and pozver in prayer. The history of the China 
Inland Mission is a wonderful story; it sounds like new 
chapters in the Acts of the Apostles. Mr. Taylor was at 
the little Conferences of Believers at Niagara-on-the-Lake 
in July, 1888 and 1889. At the first, he made a precious 
address, fragrant with the anointing of God — unpreten- 
tious, modest, simple, childlike. It took us all captive by 
a divine fascination. He simply unfolded the word of God, 
made no appeal, and would, in fact, have no " collection." 
But that little company of believers, mostly poor, con- 
strained him to accept a freewill offering of some $2 ; 500. 
To their surprise he was rather anxious than pleased. 
And in 1889 he told the source of his perplexity. He said : 

" When that money was put into my hands, I felt bur- 
dened ; when the Lord sends me workers I feel no anxiety, 
for I know that He who provides laborers for His harvest- 
field will provide the means to put them into the field. But 
when the Lord gives me money and not the workmen to 
use the money, I know not what to do with it. When 
from the Conference of 1888 thirteen volunteers subse- 
quently offered themselves for the great field of China, I 
said, ' Now the Lord has solved my perplexity/ But, you 
see, we sometimes reckon too fast. And so it was with 
me. For when I went to the places from which these be- 
loved laborers were to go forth to the harvest-field, the 
churches to which they belonged insisted on paying all the 
expenses of their outfit and journey; and so I had this 
money still on hand, and my perplexity was increased. 
Now, dear friends, don't give me any more money unless 
you give me the men and women to use it ! " 

Here was the head of a great missionary movement 
whose main care is not money at all, and who is more anx- 
ious to have workmen than funds; who, in fact, begs us 



PRAYER-BASIS OF MISSION WORK 91 

not to give him any more money until we first provide the 
zvorkers to use it. The ordinary conditions seem some- 
how reversed. We hear on all sides frantic appeals for 
money. A few years ago scores of young men and women 
were offering to go, but there was no money to send them ; 
appeals for workmen were more enthusiastically responded 
to than the Church responded to the needs of an over-taxed 
treasury ! 

Have we not, in missionary work, fallen into the snare 
of worldly care? Do not missions stand in our thought 
too much as an enterprise of the Church, and too little as 
the work of Go d, of which the Church is the commissioned 
agent ? Back of all other causes of the present perplexity 
in mission work ; behind all the apathy of individuals and 
the inactivity of churches, all lack of enthusiasm and of 
funds, all deficiency of men and means, of intelligence and 
of consecration, of readiness to send and of alacrity to go, 
there lies one lack deeper, more radical, more fundamental 
— viz.: the lack of believing prayer. Until that lack 
is supplied the doors now opened will not be entered, and 
the doors now shut will not be opened ; laborers of the right 
sort will not be forthcoming, nor the money forthcoming 
to put them at work and sustain them in it ; until that lack 
is supplied the churches in the mission field will not be 
largely blessed with conversions^ nor the churches in the 
home field largely blessed with outpourings and anointings 
of zeal for God and passion for souls. 

The first necessity for the Church and the world is also 
the first central petition of the Lord's Prayer : Thy King- 
dom Come! of which the hallowing of God's name is the 
preparation and the doing of God's will is the consequence. 
And that Kingdom comes only in answer to expectant 
prayer. We need, first of all, a revival of the praying 
spirit which moved Jonathan Edwards to publish his ap- 
peal in 1747, and led William Carey and John Sutcliffe to 



92 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

republish it in 1787. Modern missions had their birth in 
prayer; all their progress is due to prayer. A few souls 
that have close access to the Mercy Seat have kept up the 
apostolic succession of supplication; and because of this, 
alone, doors have been opened, workmen thrust forth, and 
money provided. But suppose the whole Church would 
get down before God ! What if, where one now prays, a 
hundred were bowed on their faces like Elijah on Carmel ! 
What if, in place of the naturalism that is eating at the 
vitals of spiritual life, there might be a revival of faith in 
the supernatural, a new and universal awakening to the 
fact that God is a present, living, faithful, prayer-hearing 
God; that the closet is his ante-room, nay, his audience- 
chamber, where, to the suppliant soul, he extends his 
sceptre and says, " Ask what thou wilt in Jesus name, and 
it shall be given unto thee ! " 

The late Mr. Neesima, of Japan, said to his fellow- 
countrymen when planning an evangelistic tour — "Ad- 
vance on your knees! " To work without praying is prac- 
tical atheism ; to pray without working is idle presump- 
tion. But to pray and work together, to baptize all work 
with prayer and to follow all prayer with work — that is an 
ideal life. Of such a life we may reverently say, laborare 
est orare — work is worship and worship is work. 

In the vision of Isaiah (vi.) the seraphim have six 
wings, and four of them are used in the office of humble 
and reverent worship, while only two are reserved for fly- 
ing. As Dr. Gordon beautifully says, " Let us learn a lesson 
on the proportion to be observed between supplication and 
service." Better twice as much devout preparation as 
work, than a hurried and superficial communion with God, 
and an unprepared and hasty dash and rush into activity. 
Let us linger before God until we get power, and then life 
becomes grand. It shines with the glory of His Face, and 
it moves with the might of His omnipotence. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE GROWTH OF " FAITH-WORK " 

" Faith missions " is a very imperfect term to describe 
a movement which needs some descriptive, definitive title, 
as one of the conspicuous developments of the century. 

Johannes Evangelista Gossner, born at Hausen, near 
Augsburg, in 1773, and dying in Berlin in 1858, at the 
age of eighty-five, has been called " the father of faith- 
missions." With his name we must associate the names 
of August Herman Francke, of Halle, George Muller, of 
Bristol, J. Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China In- 
land Mission, and many others who have, in a peculiar 
sense, become coworkers with God under the inspiration 
of faith and prayer and with sole dependence upon Him. 

To some the term " Faith Missions " seems invidious, 
as though other missions were not carried on upon the 
principle of faith. Yet, to learn God's lessons from his- 
tory, we must neither be too jealous concerning mere 
phrases, nor too proud, self-willed, or sensitive, to admit 
our errors or deficiencies. There are two classes of activi- 
ties among disciples. In one class what are called good 
" business methods and principles " are adopted as the 
basis. The church, local or general, takes up an enterprise, 
calls to its aid strong and wise counselors, and forms a 
Board ; then goes about its proposed work after the method 
of worldly prudence — it will cost so much to carry it on, 
and so much must be raised by contribution. The most 
vigorous appeals are made for money and for men — the 
main dependence being upon thorough organization and 

93 



94 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

wise administration. If funds fail, there must be new ap- 
peal. No forward step must be taken without a sufficient 
guaranty, better still if in advance the supply of material 
is such as assures success. God's blessing will be sought 
by true disciples, who carry into the Lord's work the prin- 
ciples practically found to assure to worldly enterprises 
the greatest prosperity and progress. Why, then^ are not 
all such church activities scriptural and apostolic ? And is 
it not Pharisaic and pretentious to describe other enter- 
prises as Faith Work, as tho nobody else had any 
faith? 

To such questions we offer a humble and candid answer. 
It is possible in work for God to give undue emphasis to 
its human side, or, rather too little emphasis to the divine 
side. We may do really Christian work in the energy of 
the flesh rather than in the energy of the Spirit; we may 
practically trust more to human wisdom than to divine di- 
rection ; we may put prayer behind our activity rather than 
before it, thus reversing the true order which puts prayer 
always first, and we may depend more on appeals to men 
than on appeals to God. And, if we read God's lesson 
rightly, here is precisely the providential meaning of these 
faith movements. They are designed by God to make more 
vivid and prominent to our faith the Presence and Power 
of a Prayer-Hearing God — to make more real the actual 
providential administration of the Lord Jesus in the af- 
fairs of His Kingdom, and the actual gracious administra- 
tion of the Holy Spirit in applying the truth to human 
souls and enlisting believers in a true cooperation with 
God and each other. 

It is a great help to get a view of missions, for example, 
as The Enterprise of God, for which He is supremely re- 
sponsible; to feel that He alone can select and separate 
and send forth His chosen laborers; that He alone can open 
wide and effectual doors, and meet and drive back the 



THE GROWTH OF " FAITH-WORK " 95 

many adversaries ; that He alone can move the people to 
give themselves, their sons and daughters, or their money ; 
that He alone can lift believers to the high level of prevail- 
ing prayer, and stir them to loving, passionate sympathy 
with lost souls ; and that consequently it is of first conse- 
quence to keep in living, loving contact with God, that our 
prayers be not hindered ; to use only scriptural and spiritual 
methods in appealing to men, or in raising funds ; and that 
there are times and matters in which we may safely, trust- 
ing in His leadership, take bold steps in advance, where, at 
the time, no human guaranty is furnished for success ; as 
when, ar Jesus' command, twelve disciples undertook to 
feed with five loaves and two fishes five thousand men, 
beside women and children. Faith counts on God as the 
Invisible Administrator, who can do things impossible with 
men, can open doors with a word or a will, thrust forth 
laborers, put the right man in the right field, supply all the 
money needful at the moment of need, and, in a word, do 
exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think. Faith 
sees that God is honored by being trusted, that believing 
is not presuming, that the audacity of confidence is some- 
times really the humility of dependence and the courage of 
obedience. 

The genuine Faith Work of our day is one of the great 
inspirations in service to God and man. We may thank 
God even for the rebuke it has often administered to hesi- 
tating unbelief, secular methods and unscriptural appeals, 
dependence on man and resorts to worldly methods for 
raising money, and for the example it has furnished of 
confidence in God in great straits. God has shown us, by 
many examples, that He is more jealous and zealous for 
His work than are any of His workmen ; that He holds the 
keys of the situation, and that the government is upon His 
shoulder. 

These lessons can best be understood by studying the 



96 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

men and the methods themselves, and letting philosophy 
teach us by examples. The miracles in apostolic days were 
not more real manifestations of the power of a present God 
than some modern triumphs of faith which are a sort of 
addition to the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. 

George Miiller always comes to mind when we refer to 
faith work. His history was one long record of blessing 
received in answer to prayer. He started more than sev- 
enty years ago, to demonstrate how much might be accom- 
plished by believing prayer, that the weak faith of disciples 
might be strengthened. This was his one great desire and 
design. And what is the result? The various schools, 
from the beginning, have had over 120,000 pupils, with 
constant conversions, sometimes over 100 in one school in 
one year. But only believers are allowed to teach, and 
only believers who are known as having power in prayer. 
It is computed that at least 10,000 of these pupils have 
been led to Christ. During this same period there have 
been circulated in various parts of the world nearly 2,000,- 
000 copies of the Bible, or portions thereof, and over 
108,000,000 of books, pamphlets, and tracts. Missionary 
operations have been carried on or aided in twenty-five dif- 
ferent lands and countries, and hundreds of missionaries 
aided in their work, through whom tens of thousands of 
souls have been brought to Christ, and from the one church 
organized by Mr. Miiller in Bristol, sixty brethren and 
sisters, forty of whom are yet engaged in labor, have gone 
forth. 

All this is beside the orphan work, in which during the 
thirty years over 3,000 orphans were converted while in 
the institution, beside hundreds who found Christ after 
they had left its walls. And the total amount of money 
disbursed for all purposes during these sixty-three years 
was about seven and a half millions of dollars. Here is an 
annual present expenditure for the orphan houses alone of 



THE GROWTH OF « FAITH-WORK " 97 

£22,000, or about $110,000. And all this money has come, 
with all other supplies, directly in answer to believing 
prayer. Beyond the annual report, no statement of the 
financial condition of the institutions was ever made to the 
public, and even the Report never appeals directly for aid. 
Never, even in the greatest straits, was one penny asked 
of any man, or any method resorted to, whatever, of ob- 
taining money or other supplies, except believing prayer. 
Even the helpers, who meet daily for united supplication, 
are cautioned not to mention, outside, the wants of the 
orphans, lest it should seem like looking to other aid than 
the Divine. And yet supplies have never once failed. The 
first donation for the orphan work was a shilling; in 1896 
23,500 pounds ! and Mr. Miiller learned to ask God as con- 
fidently for twenty thousand pounds as, when he began, 
for a shilling. 

Those who would find the principles of faith work ex- 
pounded by Mr. Miiller himself, must read " The Lord's 
Dealings with George Miiller." 

There he gives six reasons why a new institution was 
founded by himself and Mr. Craik, instead of working 
through institutions already founded. Let this faith- 
worker briefly define his own position. He writes : 

1. The end which these religious societies propose to 
themselves, and which is constantly put before their mem- 
bers, is that the whole world will gradually become better, 
and at last be converted ; whereas Scripture teaching is that 
in the present dispensation, things will not become spiritu- 
ally better, but rather worse, and that it is not the whole 
world that will be converted, but only a people gathered 
out from among the Gentiles for the Lord. As it is un- 
scriptural to expect the conversion of the whole world, 
we could not propose to ourselves such an end in the 
service of our Lord. 

2. That which is worse, is the connection of those re- 



98 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

ligious societies with the world, which is completely con- 
trary to the Word of God. In temporal things, the chil- 
dren of God need, whilst they remain on earth, to make 
use of this world ; but when the work to be done requires 
that those who attend to it should be possessed of spiritual 
life, the children of God are bound, by their loyalty to their 
Lord, entirely to refrain from association with the unre- 
generate. 

3. The means made use of in these religious societies to 
obtain money for the work of the Lord are also, in other 
respects, unscriptural ; for it is a most common case to 
ask the unconverted for money, which even Abraham 
would not have done. 

4. It is not a rare thing for even committee members 
(the individuals who manage the affairs of the societies) 
to be manifestly unconverted persons, if not open enemies, 
of the truth ; and this is suffered because they are rich or 
have influence. 

5. It is a common thing to endeavor to obtain for pa- 
trons or presidents of these societies, and for. chairmen at 
public meetings, persons of rank and wealth to attract the 
public. Never once have I known a case of a poor, but 
very devoted, wise, and experienced servant of Christ be- 
ing invited to fill the chair at such public meetings. 

6. Almost all of these societies contract debts, so that 
it is a comparatively rare case to read a report of any Of 
them without finding that they have expended more than 
they have received, which is contrary both to the spirit and 
letter of the New Testament. 

7. Another law, is that God only is acknowledged as 
the patron of the work, and all appeals for help are to be 
addressed to Him in believing prayer — that success is 
to be gauged, not by the amount of money given, but by 
the Lord's blessing; and, while desirous to avoid needless 



THE GROWTH OF « FAITH-WORK " 99 

singularity, the one aim will be to go on simply according 
to Scripture, without compromising truth. * 

Gossner, the humble pastor of the little Bethlehem 
church in Berlin, had no thought of being a leader in a 
new movement, or, above all, a " missionary founder." He 
simply walked, a step at a time, after the Divine leader, 
venturing to put faith in the words of God, and not dis- 
count his promises by unbelief, or by limiting them to the 
apostolic period, or some remoter time. The story is fas- 
cinating in its successive steps, showing how marvelously 
God leads a willing soul who is courageous enough to 
follow. Three or four artizans sought him for advice, 
when they felt the burning fire shut up in their bones, 
and were weary with forbearing; they felt that they must 
preach the Gospel in the regions beyond. But when he 
would not give them aid or approval, they begged, at least, 
what he could not withhold — a partnership in prayer that 
God would guide them. He consented, but it was perilous 
for unbelief, for he found himself praying sympathetically 
and, at last, fervently, until the symphony of prayer became 
a sympathy of service. Then he went another step, and 
began to give them positive help. They came to him when 
their day's work was over, and Gossner became to them 
an educator, training them in such knowledge of the Word 
of God, and the truth according to godliness, as he found 
lacking. He had suddenly and unconsciously established 
a training-school. 

Then followed the next step. To encourage men to go 
forth to the world-field without first running the round 
of the regular curriculum of classical and theological 
training, was an ecclesiastical heresy which subjected 
Gossner to a fire of criticism. Yet he was so sure that he 
had followed, tho at first reluctantly, the leading of God, 

* The Lord's Dealings with George Miiller. I. 107-112. 

LrfC. 



ioo FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

that the assaults of his accusers only confirmed him in his 
course. He shut himself in with God for prolonged prayer, 
and he found the shield of faith still able to quench the 
fiery darts hurled at him as an innovator, introducing cus- 
toms not lawful for his brethren to receive neither to ob- 
serve — being Germans. He could not act independently 
of the approval of his brethren, without also cutting loose 
from their pecuniary aid. And so Gossner thrust his 
self-trained workmen forth in sole and simple dependence 
on God for all needful supplies. This was the distinctive 
characteristic of the Gossner Mission, and it was this which 
God ordained should be an example to others who should 
afterward dare to trust Him after the same sort. Gossner 
remembered our Lord's solitary injunction when he 
showed His disciples the fields that were white for the 
sickle : '"' Pray ye, therefore, the LORD of the Harvest 
that He will thrust forth laborers into His harvest," and 
he remembered the singular illustration of the working of 
this principle in the Antiochan Church, when the Holy 
Ghost called by name and sent forth Barnabas and Saul. * 
Such precept and practice were to him sufficient warrant 
for both looking directly to the Lord for such laborers, and 
for asking for such money, as were needed. 

Gossner was already sixty-three years old when he broke 
off connection with the Berlin Missionary Society, and be- 
gan to work on independent lines. At that age, few men 
think of becoming pioneers, rather beginning to withdraw 
from active labors. Yet Gossner was permitted to put into 
the field two hundred men and women, and for the outfit 
and support of this mission band he was simply in part- 
nership with God. And so sacred did he consider this 
divine partnership, that it became an act of unbelief to ask 
of men any longer, since he was permitted and authorized 
to ask of God in faith, nothing wavering. Faith made 

* Acts xiii, i-$. 



THE GROWTH OF « FAITH-WORK " 101 

him bold, and, as he quaintly phrased it, he counted it his 
business to be employed in " ringing God's prayer-bell 
rather than the beggar's door-bell." Did God honor the 
partnership of faith? Let the sufficient witness be the 
words spoken over Gossner's open grave : " he prayed mis- 
sion stations into being, and missionaries into faith; he 
prayed open the hearts of the rich, and gold from the most 
distant lands." 

As Dr. A. J.Gordon says, "Gossner believed in the Holy 
Ghost, whom he regarded as the administrator of missions. 
Therefore he relied on prayer more than on organization." 
Having done all in his power, he would sit in his little room 
and commit the distant work to this Divine Executor, and 
" Beg Him to direct it all and order it after His own will." 
Instead of an elaborate manual of instructions, this was the 
simple and stirring commission which he put into the 
hands of his missionaries: "Believe, hope, love, pray, 
burn, waken the dead! Hold fast by prayer; wrestle like 
Jacob! Up, up, my brethren! The Lord is coming, and 
to every one he will say, ' where hast thou left the souls of 
these heathens ? With the devil?' O, swiftly seek these 
soids, and enter not zvithout them into the presence of the 
Lord." * 

It would be a long chapter that should trace the apos- 
tolic succession from this missionary founder and trainer. 
Louis Harms is one example — in Hermannsburgh, daring 
to undertake missions on a scale unparalleled in history. 
Think of this pastor, who over fifty years ago inaugurated 
in his own church — a church of poor farmers, artizans, 
peasants, and mechanics — a missionary society, which came 
to have shortly not only its missions and missionaries, but 
its own ship, its own magazine, its own training college, 
its own complete equipment. At the end of thirty-one 
years, Louis Harms had put into the field and kept there^ 

* " The Holy Spirit in Missions," by Dr. A. J. Gordon. 68, 69. 



102 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

over 350 missionaries, and in ten years more, could praise 
God for 13,000 converts in the mission churches, while the 
church at home had grown to unprecedented proportions, 
and was the largest in the world. Let us look into his 
simple diary. " I prayed to the Lord Jesus that He would 

provide the needed sum of ." " Last year, 1857, I 

needed 1,500 crowns, and the Lord gave me sixty over. 
This year I needed double, and He has given me double, 
and one hundred and forty over." 

Other, and more recent enterprises — founded and con- 
ducted on the same essential basis as Francke's, Mtil- 
ler's, Gossner's, Harms' — need separate treatment. Their 
one essential principle is that they treat the work as God's, 
and Him as the responsible founder and administrator; 
and they lay great stress on two subordinate laws of con- 
duct: First that, as the Scriptures are the express revela- 
tion of His will, no methods or measures should be ad- 
mitted or permitted in His work that are not according to 
His word ; and secondly, that, as the throne of grace is the 
eternal storehouse of supplies, all appeal for help is to be 
primarily to God ; and that all dependence on man for aid, 
and especially on direct appeal to man, is practically a de- 
parture from the simple, divinely ordained channel of sup- 
plies. Such principles as these, vindicated by such prac- 
tical illustrations, demand, and should receive, careful 
study by all who seek to work with God. 

The last few years have furnished two quite apposite 
examples of successful work for God, on two quite differ- 
ent lines — The work founded and fostered by George 
Muller in Bristol, and that founded and developed under 
Dwight L. Moody in America. Both grew to giant dimen- 
sions ; both had God's Glory in view and both were educa- 
tional and philanthropic. George Muller died March 10, 
1898, and left behind him the Scriptural Knowledge In- 
stitution with its five branches ; of one only we need to take 



THE GROWTH OF « FAITH-WORK " 103 

notice — the school and orphan work, as most nearly re- 
sembling Mr. Moody's, altho the vast colportage work, 
in distributing Bibles and tracts in various languages 
closely resembles Mr. Moody's latest effort, the sending 
forth of the printed page to bless the prisoner in his soli- 
tude. D wight Moody died on December 22, 1899. Here, 
then, after an interval of less than two years, this second 
departure took place, and each man left behind him a colos- 
sal enterprise which he had been led to inaugurate and 
carry forward. It is a peculiar parallel also that to carry 
on the work in each case demands annually an income 
of about $125,000. Mr. Moody, from the time, in 1879, 
when he began the school work, up to the day of his death, 
in 1899, when he left behind these great collegiate schools 
in Mt. Hermon and Northfield, and the Training School 
at Chicago, with this increasing colportage work — had 
conducted all on the most approved Christian business 
principles. He kept the names of all the best available men 
and women of the United States and Britain who had 
money and were givers, and were known to him, and un- 
hesitatingly appealed to them for aid. Sometimes he 
would write a hundred letters, with his usual tact and with 
a certain authority born of unselfishness, and tell them he 
needed aid and how much he wanted them to give. Those 
to whom he appealed believed in him and his work and 
usually responded to his call. In this way mainly he 
raised all the money represented in the school property,' 
and needed in the annual outlay which was but half cov- 
ered by charges for board and tuition. When Mr. Moody 
died, there was no man of like large acquaintance and in- 
fluence and tact to step into his place, and a crisis inevitably 
arose. Unless, by permanent endowment of $3,000,000 or 
by annual collection of $120,000, money were supplied, the 
work must decrease if not decline, and organized effort 
became necessary to press this matter on the attention of 



104 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

the public, and secure permanence to the noble institutions 
which he had taken twenty years to build up. 

Now. let us go back about two years. Suddenly George 
Miiller died, much more without premonition than Mr. 
Moody. A similar sum of money was needed to carry on 
the work he left behind; even if it be restricted to the 
orphan work only. There was no crisis, and there has been 
no appeal to the public for money, beyond the indirect 
challenge to liberality found in the work itself and the 
yearly report of its progress. Everything goes on just as 
before. There is the daily meeting for prayer, and God 
is asked in faith, to feed, clothe and provide for the 
1600 orphans housed on Ashley Down. Not one word 
has been spoken or written, revealing any crisis incident 
to the death of the founder of the orphanages, or suggest- 
ing any lack of supplies incident to, or consequent on, his 
departure. For over threescore years George Miiller 
made but one direct appeal for aid — to God. His successor 
and son-in-law, Mr. Wright, does the same, and Mr. Ber- 
gin and his helpers are in full sympathy. It was the wri- 
ter's precious privilege to pass several months of the years 
1898 and 1900 in Bristol in constant fellowship with Mr. 
Wright and Mr. Bergin, coming into close touch with the 
staff of helpers at the orphanage, and mingling with them 
in prayer for all needs of those hundreds of poor orphan 
children. It was also his privilege to watch for months 
the daily supply meeting the daily need, without one pub- 
lic meeting, one word in the public press, or even a private 
and confidential statement to a few close friends, of any 
emergency to be met. Yet with the very unique person- 
ality of Mr. Miiller withdrawn, and whatever personal in- 
fluence he had in getting money, no longer available, not a 
child was sent from the orphan houses, not a meal lacked 
food, and not a want went unsupplied. For sixty years the 
God of Heaven had been solely appealed to and He is not 



THE GROWTH OF " FAITH-WORK " 105 

dead. The same Divine hand still supplies in answer to the 
prayer of faith every possible need, out of His riches in 
glory by Christ Jesus. Day by day, without any machinery 
of collectors, any asking for help save of God, money and 
other gifts pour in unceasingly. Mr. Miiller's departure 
left no gap to be filled save in the love and yearning hearts 
of those who loved him. The same principles of faith 
and prayer which he laid as the cornerstone of the work, 
remain to sustain it. 

Now the contrast compels us candidly to ask, which is 
the more scriptural and spiritual method of carrying on 
work for God, and which brings the work into least peril 
when the workman dies? These are questions which are 
not idle or useless but intensely practical, and there is one 
consideration which reaches beyond even this question of 
the permanency of the work. The response of God's people 
to the calls of God depends largely on their education in 
giving. If for example a pastor habituates his people to 
give only under his personal and stirring and urgent ap- 
peals, then when he is gone or fails to present the case with 
power the gifts drop off ; or it may be that the person who 
would otherwise give is not present when the appeal is 
made and so does not feel its urgency. On the other 
hand, suppose a congregation thoroughly trained to think 
of themselves as God's stewards — to consider every cause 
of God in its inherent worth and claim,, and seek of God 
to know duty and privilege — then gifts come in with the 
regularity of an overflowing stream. The Word of 
God distinctly teaches us that the basis of Christian giv- 
ing must be found in prayer to God and the culture of in- 
dividual responsibility as in trust with God's property. 
This principle faith missions seek to emphasize. 

J. Hudson Taylor on one occasion made a strong presen- 
tation of China's needs, but declined to take any collection 
on the occasion, asking the hearers to go and consider 



106 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

prayerfully what their duty was. The chairman happened 
to be also Mr. Taylor's host and he remonstrated that he 
had lost an opportunity. But the next morning handing 
Mr. Taylor a check for a large amount he remarked that 
he was now persuaded of the propriety of his course, ac- 
knowledging that, had he given at the time he would have 
given a very small amount, but that after prayerful weigh- 
ing of the matter he had seen his whole duty. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE CULTURE OF THE GRACE OF GIVING 

Paul has apparently rescued from oblivion a logion of 
the Lord Jesus, more valuable than any of those over which 
Egyptologists have lately made so much ado : " Remember 
the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, ' It is more 
blessed to give than to receive/ " This priceless oracle 
seems to be one of those sayings, handed down by tradi- 
tion, but not embodied in the Gospel narratives. Its 
unique value largely consists in this, that it lifts giving 
to its highest plane, and crowns it as the true secret of the 
most exalted blessing to the giver himself. 

Nothing needs reconstruction more than modern giving ; 
in fact, the reconstruction must be a revolution, for the 
whole basis is wrong. A great German, in a clever epi- 
gram, contrasts Socialism and Christianity thus: the for- 
mer says, " What is thine is mine " ; the latter, " What is 
mine is thine." But as the late Dr. R. W. Dale said, " The 
epigram itself needs correction. Christianity really teaches 
us to say, ' What seems thine is not thine, what seems 
mine is not mine. Whatever thou or I have belongs to 
God ; and you and I must use what we have according to 
His will/ " 

This is the essence of that sublime truth everywhere 
taught in Scripture: God's inalienable ownership; man's 
undeniable stewardship. This is the one corner-stone of 
the whole Biblical system of giving ; and because it is prac- 
tically denied or virtually obsolete, we need to begin at the 

107 



108 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

beginning, if we are to have a new and a true system in 
the Christian use of money. 

So fundamental is this grace, that, whenever and 
wherever there is spiritual advance, the standard of giving 
becomes more worthy of God*s people. When Carey 
sounded the bugle call for a new crusade of missions a 
century ago, one of the first signs of a response was found 
in the thirteen pounds two shillings and sixpence, laid on 
God's altar in Widow Wallis' parlor at Kettering on that 
memorable October day in 1792. And " Carey's penny," 
the systematic weekly offering, was the recognition of the 
need of a regular, stated, habitual setting apart of the 
Lord's portion. 

From that day to this the matter of giving has been one 
of the three perplexing problems to be solved in our 
church life : praying, going, giving. Many have been the 
attempts at solution. Most prominent, perhaps, has been 
the restoration of the tithe system, which has the advan- 
tage of being originally God^s own appointment. This, 
with all its merits, is much misunderstood ; it belongs to 
law rather than grace, and it fails to answer the demands 
of Christian equity. Commonly, the tithe, or tenth, is sup- 
posed to have satisfied God's claims and man's needs, 
while, in fact, the Jewish tithe represented not the max- 
imum but the minimum, and, in some years, the proportion 
given to the Lord's purposes reached two-fifths, if not 
three-fifths, of the faithful believer's income. Again, 
under a dispensation of grace we become sensible of a new 
ownership of ourselves by God, as redeemed, regenerated, 
Spirit-filled saints, including all we have and are. Under 
this new order, the Sabbath is not less God's time, but all 
days become Sabbatic; the tithe is not less His, but all 
money is in trust for His uses ; all things and all work be- 
come part of a consecrated life for His glory. Moreover, 
while the tithe may be a fair proportion for a poor saint, it 



CULTURE OF GRACE OF GIVING 109 

is manifestly out of all proportion for the rich, for our giv- 
ing is, in equity, to be estimated not by what is given, but 
by what is kept. 

Another prominent plan has been the apostolic way of 
laying by in store, weekly, or at stated times, according as 
God has prospered, not a fixed sum or' proportion, but a 
variable amount, depending on ability at the time. This 
has advantages, most obviously the tendency conscien- 
tiously to weigh and prayerfully to consider what duty is, 
and how the measure of obligation varies with increasing- 
prosperity. Its obvious defect is the lack of uniform sup- 
plies for the work of God, and the risk of too flexible a 
conscience in the estimate of real ability. 

In some quarters much stress has been laid on a stated 
season of special restraint upon appetite and other indul- 
gences, as in the " self-denial week," which has yielded 
large returns to various benevolent enterprises. But there 
is no Scripture warrant for a method so spasmodic and 
sentimental. The risk is, that, after the special " lenten " 
season is over, indulgence may run riot, as tho there 
were some new right acquired to pleasure-seeking, by the 
previous self-imposed restraints. 

The various individual schemes for promoting true giv- 
ing need only a mention, since they have so limited a range 
of experiment. Some few devote to the Lord's purposes, 
pound for pound, or dollar for dollar, an equal amount to 
that expended for self. Equitable indeed it seems, to make 
God the partner who shares alike with ourselves in all the 
outgo of property. But does not this imply, at least, that 
the half we spend on ourselves is not His, and that the 
moiety we hand over to Him equalizes all claims ? A few 
Christians limit their accumulations or expenditures to 
what they deem a reasonable sum, and put the whole re- 
mainder at the Lord's disposal — a high example of giving, 
indeed, in contrast with the low level of most saints, 



no FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

But of these and all such methods^ more or less current, 
the question still arises, and claims a candid answer, What 
is God's standard of giving? This grave matter should 
be looked at solely in the searching light of the will and 
word of God. We have come to accept methods — and, still 
worse, notions, of giving, which begin in an issue with the 
universal Owner. We count what we have our own, not 
His, and think of ourselves as owners and proprietors, not 
stewards and trustees. We satisfy ourselves with setting 
aside the Lord's portion, and consider ourselves entitled 
to determine what that portion is, and treat the rest as our 
own, to do with it as we will. Hence come avaricious 
hoarding and self-indulgent spending, which are supposed 
to be legitimate; and hence comes also that tardy atone- 
ment of " munificent bequests," of which Shaftsbury was 
wont to speak with such contempt, as tho there could 
be any real munificence in giving away what one can no 
longer use or even keep. Rightly viewed, it is questionable 
whether there be even such things as " munificent dona- 
tions/' since a " debtor," a " trustee," a " steward " — 
which are God's own terms for His human creatures — can 
not make a donation, but can only discharge a debt, fulfil 
a trust, execute a commission. 

This truth is drastic, but it is God's medicine for the 
deadly disease of greed, and the fatal selfishness of which 
greed is only a symptom. The teaching of the blessed 
Word is unmistakable, and may be briefly stated under the 
following seven " theses," to borrow Luther's word : 

i. God owns all things and all creatures, and never 
alienates or transfers His ownership. 

2. God claims us, with all we are and have, as His by 
creation, preservation, redemption, and endowment. 

3. God teaches us that the one goal of our lives, in every 
detail, is to be not our own pleasure or profit, but His 



CULTURE OF GRACE OF GIVING in 

4. Every man is a debtor to all other men, to love and 
further their well-being even as he loves and furthers his 
own. 

5. All we possess, being held in trust, is to be used so as 
to serve the highest, largest, and most lasting ends for 
God's glory and man's good. 

6. Hence the one supreme life of light and love, duty 
and privilege, honor and blessing, is to lose oneself in the 
will of God. 

7. Giving belongs to this highest plane of privilege. We 
multiply ourselves in our gifts, as one spring may fill many 
streams. No miser can be happy, for the very end of re- 
ception is impartation. 

These laws of giving belong to a code, practically obso- 
lete with man, yet eternally in force with God, immutable 
as Himself. And not only missions, but every other form 
of work for man's uplifting and salvation, will find its 
chariot wheels drag heavily, until the divine idea of giving 
holds the throne and shrine in our conviction, and sways 
our lives. Every cry of retrenchment is an assault on God 
and an insult to His claims. Even were there no more 
than the faithful bringing in of the tithes, there would 
always be meat in His house and blessing on His people. 
But could His Church once be roused from lethargy and 
apathy, feel her debt to a dying world, and see her 
apostasy in the matter of withholding what is her's only 
as held in trust for the payment of that debt, a river of 
beneficence would flow into the various channels of Chris- 
tian service, which would overleap all present banks, and 
demand new and more adequate modes of distribution — a 
river to swim in. 

The ministry of money has never yet been appreciated 
by disciples. The vast power, latent in hallowed riches, 
is one of the great dormant forces of the moral uni- 
verse. Wealth belongs to the material world, but, once 



ii2 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

consecrated, it becomes a moral and spiritual motor — a 
motive power in the realm of the unseen. Out of the 
mammon of unrighteousness we may make friends, coin- 
ing money into saved souls and good works done for God. 
Money is a lever for all good enterprises, and represents 
values of all sorts. It not only provides home comforts 
and drives the wheels of industry, but it relieves poverty 
and misery, promotes education and art, is a great civiliz- 
ing force, and the handmaid of evangelism. But its abuse 
is as mighty for evil as its use is for good ; indeed, the 
best, perverted, always becomes the worst. 

What colossal fortunes are held by single owners ! 
When a well-known New Yorker died, he left behind, it is 
said, two hundred millions of dollars. If that amount were 
piled up in standard silver dollars, one on top of another, 
it would represent a column over three hundred miles high. 
Yet the whisky money of this nation would represent a 
similar column over three thousand miles high! The 
annual income of the Duke of Westminster would itself 
support four thousand married missionaries with their 
families in the costliest fields of the Orient! And yet, 
what do such giant fortunes amount to, in the retrospect 
of a selfish life ? The vast treasure of A. T. Stewart was 
all gone, within a decade of years after his decease. His 
body was stolen and his splendid mausoleum is empty. 
How. few to-day rise up and call him blessed! The in- 
ventor of the fire-extinguishing apparatus, called by his 
name, died in a California almshouse at seventy years of 
age, after having received $10,000 a month for royalty on 
his machines. 

Extravagance saps the very foundation of honesty and 
virtue, and removes all the base-blocks of individual and 
family life. Decline of marriages, which was one of the 
chief causes of the fall of the Roman Empire, was due to 
the cost of living which forbade a Roman young man to 



CULTURE OF GRACE OF GIVING 113 

marry. Thus the middle classes were crushed out — which 
to every nation are its backbone. The same causes are 
now conspiring to ruin two of the foremost so-called 
Christian nations of the earth ! 

Modern extravagance seems to outstrip even ancient 
waste. The wedding ceremony itself often involves 
enormous outlay. While China was appealing to the 
world to help her starving millions in famine, the 
Emperor's wedding festivities wasted millions of dollars. 
An eccentric millionaire was buried not long ago in 
a casket which cost $10,000, the funeral, as a whole, 
costing thrice that amount. A banker's wife, in a party 
at the Capital, is said to have worn a dress covered with 
one-hundred and five-hundred dollar bills, so as to make it 
appear one pattern, the waist and sleeves being thousand 
dollar bonds sewed in ; her fingers were ablaze with dia- 
monds, and she wore a tiara worth $80,000, the total 
value of her costume being about $300,000 ! In recent art 
sales in London, $10,000 were spent for a dessert service, 
and $50,000 for two rose-tinted vases. Nearly fifty mil- 
lion smokers are now in the United States and Britain, 
and the cost of this indulgence is one hundred times what 
the whole Church of Christ spends on missions. 

The churches — alas ! lead the way in setting up a wrong 
standard of expenditure. One well-known church spends 
$3,000 a year on the choir, and averages $150 a year for 
foreign missions ! Bishop Coxe found a man in his dio- 
cese who put five cents a Sunday into the church box, and 
$800 a season into the opera box ; another millionaire could 
be named who gives a dollar a Sunday, but stops even 
this payment when he takes his annual winter excursion to 
the South, where he spends thousands for his own enjoy- 
ment! 

- Where is zeal for God ? The men of this world do not 
hesitate to embark on an enterprise whose profits are un- 



ii4 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

certain, and to risk vast sums on an experiment. The ship 
canal projected from Bordeaux on the Atlantic, to Nar- 
bonne on the Mediterranean, would cost $130,000,000. 
When a few years ago a new fleet of ninety-two vessels 
was planned for the navy of the United States, it was ex- 
pected to call for $20,000,000 a year, for fourteen years! 
What a work it was to build the pyramids, employing one 
thousand men at a time, and occupying twenty years ! The 
Russian war cost England alone $500,000,000. Consider 
what might have been done in the field of missions with 
that last sum, which represents all that has been given in 
the last seventy-five years for world-wide evangelization, 
by the whole Church! 

It is a shame that we should find the most munificent 
givers outside of the Church of Christ. Baron Hirsch, of 
Paris, recently dead, gave to the poor Russian Jews, and 
their fellow Hebrews in Poland, Hungary, and Austria, 
$10,000,000; and shortly after as much more to other 
charities. His benefactions are yet without a parallel in 
history. And this famous financier and railroad king, 
besides giving ten millions to Christian schools and hos- 
pitals in Europe, gave $40,000,000 to build commercial 
schools in the waste lands of the continent for the Jews. 

One awful fact is that there has been a decline and 
decay of liberality in the churches : While the membership 
increased in thirty years three and a half times, there was 
a decided falling off in the rate of giving, so that while 
the total of gifts increased, the amount given, reckoned 
by the average, went down to about one-half. 

God wants self-denying giving. The wealth of church 
members in Protestant communions is, by the census, at 
least $10,000,000,000. Their contributions average one- 
sixteenth of a cent for every dollar, or one dollar in about 
$1,600. Who can look at the Japanese temple, with its 
coil of rope, — larger than a ship's hawser, and weighing a 



CULTURE OF GRACE OF GIVING 115 

ton and a half, made from the hair of Buddha's worship- 
ers, and used to lift timbers and stones to their places in 
the temple building, — without feeling the rebuke implied 
to our self-vSparing gifts? 

What a sacrifice of vanity was that when the women of 
Israel gave their metal mirrors to be- melted down and re- 
cast for the laver of the holy court. As surely as the 
barnacles eat their way into the oak timbers of a ship and 
sink her, selfishness eats into and destroys Christian char- 
acter. Mr. Spurgeon had a contempt for all parsimony, 
and occasionally thundered anathemas against it, or again 
pelted it with ridicule. One morning he said of some un- 
willing givers that they squeezed each shilling until the 
queen's head was well nigh obliterated. The Abbe Roux 
keenly remarked, that " It is not as far from the heart to 
the mouth as from the mouth to the hand," meaning that 
many who talk generously give stingily. 

On the other side of the sea are found examples of dis- 
proportionate giving very rare in America — giving which 
would be thought by most people quite out of proportion 
to their selfish indulgence. For example: First case — A 
governess, who out of the £100 earned, keeps £50 and 
gives the other £50 away ; like Zaccheus, she says : " Be- 
hold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor." 
Second case — " One whose income is £2,000, lives on 
£200 and gives £1,800 away," thus parting with not only 
one-tenth, but with nine-tenths of what is received. Third 
case — " Another, who earns £1,500 a year, lives on £100 
and gives £1,400 away," and thus £14 out of every £15 
are devoted to the claims of religion and charity. Fourth 
case — " Another, whose income is £8,000, lives on £250 
and gives the balance away." What a balance to part 
with: £31 given back to God out of every £32 received 
from Him! Mr. Gladstone's brief eulogy of Mr. Peabody 
was : " One who taught us the most needful of all lessons: 



n6 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

how a man may be a master of his fortune and not its 
slave." There is one lesson even more needful — namely, 
that we should learn that no man can assume to be the 
" master of a fortune " without virtually disputing the 
fact of stewardship. 

God wants consecrated capital for consecrated work. 
When Theresa felt the need of a hospital, she had but 
three farthings, but she began to build, for while " Theresa 
and three farthings were nothing, God and three farthings 
were incalculable." He wants conscientious and systematic 
giving. Stonewall Jackson, on the day after the second 
battle of Bull's Run, in the midst of all the feverish ex- 
citement of the war, inclosed his contribution for missions 
due on the Sabbath. Tho he could not be present, he 
could not neglect the offering. 

He who appropriates a certain proportion to benevo- 
lent work, should increase the proportion as wealth accu- 
mulates. More than half a century ago, Nathaniel Cobb 
sat down in his counting-house in Boston, and wrote the 
following solemn covenant: 

" By the grace of God, I will never be worth more than fifty 
thousand dollars. By the grace of God, I will give one-fourth 
of the net profits of my business to charitable and religious uses. 
If I am ever worth twenty thousand dollars, I will give one- 
half of my net profits ; if I am worth thirty thousand dollars, I 
will give three-fourths; and the whole after fifty thousand dol- 
lars. So help me God, or give to a more faithful steward, and 
set me aside." 

This covenant he subscribed and adhered to with con- 
scientious fidelity as long as he lived. On his death-bed 
he said to a friend, " By the grace of God, nothing else, 
I have been enabled, under the influence of these resolu- 
tions, to give away more than forty thousand dollars. 
How good the Lord has been to me ! " 



CULTURE OF GRACE OF GIVING 117 

The ministry of money should begin when we have but 
little. As the Persian proverb says : 

" Do the little things now ; 
So the big things shall by and by 
Come asking to be done." 

Scriptural giving is worship, and so every worshiper 
of God must be one of God's givers, whether rich or poor. 
Dr. Howard Crosby used to say, " The poor man should 
no more omit giving, on account of his poverty, than the 
illiterate his praying because of his bad grammar." The 
mites God values as much as the millions, if they mean 
prayerful, and devout, and worshipful giving, but God has 
as much contempt for the mites of a miser as he has re- 
spect for the mites of the poor widow. 

It is more blessed to give than to receive. When dis- 
ciples learn the true ministry of money, the privilege of 
giving will swallow up the obligation. 

When we understand our stewardship, we shall see 
that every dollar belongs to God. Dr. William Kincaid 
says : " A friend of mine was receiving some money at the 
hands of a bank officer the other day, when he noticed, 
depending from one of the bills, a little scarlet thread. 
He tried to pull it out, but found that it was woven into 
the very texture of the note, and could not be withdrawn. 
' Ah ! ' said the banker, ' you will find that all the govern- 
ment bills are made so now. It is an expedient to pre- 
vent counterfeiting.' Just so Christ has woven the scarlet 
thread of his blood into every dollar that the Christian 
owns. It can not be withdrawn ; it marks it as His. 
When you take out a government note to expend it for 
some needless luxury, notice the scarlet thread therein, 
and reflect that it belongs to Christ. How can we triflfc 
with the price of blood ? " 

Beautiful is the myth of Elizabeth of Hungary, the 



ti8 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

pioneer saint and martyr. When carrying, in her robe, 
supplies of food for the poor, her husband pressed her to 
know what was the burden she was bearing, and, open- 
ing her robe, he saw only heaven's red and white roses, 
and was dazzled by the supernal glory of her face. In 
God's eyes how many of our simplest gifts for His poor 
are really celestial blooms, full of a holy fragrance as the 
sweet smell of incense ! 

Were we brought into such vital and habitual sympathy 
with God as to see this lost world through His eyes, that 
would solve every problem. We should then learn to 
pray, for we should share in the travail of the Son of God ; 
we should yearn to go, for the want and woe of mankind 
would draw us as it drew Him ; and we should find it easy 
to give, and correspondingly hard to keep. Each soul in 
harmony with God will say, as Christ said : " Lo, I come 
to do Thy will, O God ! " 

To ask unbelievers for gifts to carry on God's work, or 
even to urge believers to give, is not God's way, and 
neither will be done by a church that is devout and truly 
consecrated. Nor will a few large givers be permitted to 
do all the giving, as tho it were by the amount given 
that the total is to be estimated. 

These are truths that are sadly obscured in our day, and 
need a new emphasis. Malachi records how God's own 
people robbed Him, and adds a representative promise : 

" Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, 
That there may be meat in mine house; 

And prove me now herewith, 
Saith the Lord of Hosts, 

If I will not open you the windows of Heaven 
And POUR you out a blessing 

Till failure of enough ! " — Mai. iii : 10. 

Certain words here are put in capitals to show the sym- 
metric parallelism. The one command and condition is, 



CULTURE OF GRACE OF GIVING 119 

a full rendering to the Lord of His own; the grand result 
is a full supply for all the needs of His work; and the 
grand reward is, a full blessing from above, until there is 
none left to pour out! 

When God gives His own solution to a problem, we 
need look no further. He here calls our attention to the 
ministry of money in His kingdom. Observe, not the 
ministry of wealth. The poverty of the poorest as well 
as the affluence of the richest has a ministry to fulfill, and 
the only encomiums bestowed by the Lord on givers have 
been on those the abundance of whose poverty abounded 
unto the riches of their liberality. 

The scriptural principles upon the subject of giving are 
now-a-days receiving new study. 

The law of the consecration of the first-born and of the 
first-fruits sets a sort of keynote to the Scripture teaching 
on giving. In Exodus xiii. : 14, 15, and parallel passages, 
the law of these first offerings is inseparably linked with 
the Exodus and the Passover. When, for the sake of the 
blood, the Lord passed over the houses of Israel and 
spared their first-born, He decreed that henceforth all that 
opened the matrix should be holy to Himself. Even the 
earth itself was embraced within the application of this 
law : regarded as each year anew, becoming a mother and 
opening her womb to give birth to harvests. Nay, more 
than this, each fresh yield of orchard and meadow, of 
vineyard and oliveyard, was regarded as the offspring of 
a maiden earth coming for the first time to maternity, and 
from her matrix giving forth unto the Lord her first-born. 
There was poetry as well as piety in the Jewish system 
of offerings to the Lord ! 

The Bible teaches throughout that God asks, and in the 
highest sense accepts, for the purposes of His Kingdom, 
only consecrated money. It may be a small minority, who 
boldly hold and advocate this view, but it is the only scrip- 



i2o FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

tural and spiritual view ; and the church will never have 
the highest blessing in her work for God till she dares to 
stand on this elevated platform with Him. 

As far back as Leviticus ii. : 13 we read these significant 
words : 

" And every oblation of thy meat offering 
Shalt thou season with salt; 
Neither shalt thou suffer the salt 
Of the Covenant of thy God 
To be lacking from thy meat offering. 
With all thine offerings shalt thou offer salt." 

Here is another unmistakable parallelism. A divine prin- 
ciple is laid down not only for meat or food offerings 
where salt is naturally added for the sake of savor, but to 
be applied to all offerings. Salt represents covenant re- 
lation with God, and hence is used symbolically to express 
the truth that offerings to God have the savor of accept- 
ableness only when salted with a covenant relationship. 

This is remarkable as the only certain reference to salt 
in the ceremonial law, * and yet so emphatic is the com- 
mand that from this point increasing importance is as- 
cribed to it. t 

This was the one symbol never absent from the altar 
of burnt offering. What was its significance? Some 
carelessly interpret it as the unfailing sign of the imper- 
ishable love of Jehovah for His people. But is this the 
natural interpretation of the command concerning salt? 
In its unalterable nature it is the contrary of leaven, which 
is held up as an evil and corrupting principle to be avoided 
as rendering offerings unacceptable. Salt is not only 
capable of imparting savor; it saves as well as savors and 
seasons; it has a cleansing power and is antiseptic, ow- 



* Exodus xxx.: 35, margin. 

t Compare Numb, xviii : 19, 2 Chron. xiii : 5, Ezek. xliii : 24. Mark ix : 
49i 5o- 



CULTURE OF GRACE OF GIVING 121 

ing to the presence of chlorine. It is the opposite of leaven. 
As leaven made offerings corrupt and offensive and gave 
them the savor of death, salt made them pure, acceptable, 
and imparted the savor of life. Hence, in order to an of- 
fering being acceptable to God, the offerer must salt it 
with a covenant spirit and relation. God has no need of 
unconsecrated and unsanctified offerings, and will not 
accept them. He demands first self-surrender^ then as a 
logical consequence — nay, part of that self-surrender and 
involved in it — the surrender of what we have, or, as we 
say, " possess." 

Of this law or principle the Fiftieth Psalm is the fullest 
exhibition in the word of God. That Psalm is simply 
Leviticus ii: 13 expanded into a sublime poem of twenty- 
three verses. Its keynote is in the fourth, fifth and sixth 
verses, which close the introductory stanza. Then fol- 
lows God's first address to His people, verses 7-16, and a 
second address to the wicked, verses 17-23, both being on 
the subject of sacrifices or offerings, and setting forth 
fundamental principles. 

First comes the keynote of the Psalm : 

" He shall call the heavens from above 
And to the earth 
That He may judge His people. 
' Gather my saints together unto me ; 
Those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice' 
And the heavens shall declare His righteousness, 
For God Himself is Judge." 

Here two things are plain : God for some reason takes 
the judgment seat, as if for an important decision, and 
calls before Him His own saints, who have made a cove- 
nant with Him by sacrifice, — literally "those that set more 
by the covenant than by any mere offering" (Cf. Exod. 
xxiv: 7, 8), or who " ratify my covenant with sacrifice." 
In other words, Jehovah solemnly summons to His pres- 



122 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

ence those who have been offering sacrifices and have not 
properly understood the relation of sacrifice and covenant. 
And now what has the Judge to say ? First to His people : 

I will not reprove thee on account of thy sacrifices, 
For thy burnt offerings are continually before me. 

He was not now, as afterward, through Malachi, re- 
proving His people for the lack of offerings, but for the 
wrong spirit that lay behind their formal obedience. To 
Asaph himself, a chief among the Levites, whose whole 
life was devoted to temple service, it was given to set forth 
in this psalm, in Jehovah's name the truth that all out- 
ward offerings, however costly and ample, without the 
prior offering of the heart and life are rejected. All god- 
less or unsanctified giving proceeds on the principle that 
God has need of money, which is here especially dis- 
claimed. 

" For every beast of the forest is mine, 
And the cattle upon a thousand hills. 
If I were hungry I would not tell thee; 
For the world is mine and the fatness thereof. 
Will I eat the flesh of bulls 
Or drink the blood of goats ? " 

God is neither hungry nor in want. If He were, He 
would not need to appeal to man, for His resources are 
infinite. Offerings, therefore, made to supply a need in 
God or His work, are a mistake ! Hence the conclusion : 

" Offer unto God thanksgiving," 

literally, " Sacrifice thanksgiving ; " Instead of peace-of- 
ferings for a thanksgiving or vow, in a legal spirit, the 
acceptable offerer must bring that which the sacrifice rep- 
resents, viz.: praise from a loving, loyal, grateful heart. 
In other words, the salt of the covenant must not be lack- 



CULTURE OF GRACE OF GIVING 123 

ing. Outer offerings are worthless that do not express 
first of all genuine devotion and obedience to the will of 
God. 

Here, then, is the great lesson. Our offerings are not 
primarily intended to relieve or supply any want of God 
or His work, but to express obedience and gratitude on 
the part of the offerer. Hence they imply the salt of 
the covenant, the previous offering of self. 

The same lesson is taught in the second part of this 
judicial address. God now turns to the wicked, and in 
the plainest words spurns his offering: 

" What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, 
Or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth : 
Seeing thou hatest instruction 
And castest my words behind thee." 

Willful transgressors bring offerings, while living in 
sin and disobedience. The salt of the covenant being lack- 
ing, their formal sacrifices God indignantly rejects, and 
warns them that, instead of accepting their offerings, He 
may tear them in pieces and none can deliver. 

Then the lesson of the psalm is reiterated in a closing 
stanza : 

" Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me. 
And to him that ordereth his way of life aright 
Will I show the salvation to God." 

Here then is a solemn setting forth of the fact that the 
primary condition of acceptable offering is that the offerer 
be in covenant relation with God. God is not a beggar or a 
beneficiary in any sense whatever. He is not dependent 
upon the help of any man for carrying on His work. He 
admits us to a double privilege; first, of giving expres- 
sion and expansion to our best impulses ; and secondly, of 
taking part with Him in a holy ministry of benevolence 
and beneficence. Hence the two conclusions follow : 



124 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

First, no unconverted man can offer an acceptable 
gift to the Lord. While he hates instruction and casts 
His words behind him, the conditions are lacking which 
make a gift acceptable. Instead of being salted, it is 
leavened; the corruption of unforgiven sin and an unrec- 
onciled heart spreads itself through the offering and chal- 
lenges God not only to reject the gift but to destroy the 
giver ! 

Secondly, for believers to depend upon unconsecrated 
money to carry on God's work is contrary to the expressed 
will of God. Appeals to unconverted men for pecuniary 
aid in such work are both inconsistent and harmful. We 
remember a rich but godless man who was approached 
with a request that he would give $500 to relieve a pres- 
sure of debt in a Foreign Missionary Board. His answer 
was : " You ministers say from the pulpit that we uncon- 
verted rich men are idolaters ; but you come to us idolaters 
for our money to carry on what you call the Lord's 
work ! " To such deserved rebuke the Church of God lays 
herself open by indiscriminate appeals for money. 

Great as is the need of money, it is not so great as to 
justify an unscriptural plan for raising it. God calls us 
to rise to the plane of faith ; to remember that He owns all , 
that the hearts of men are in His hand; that He can un- 
lock the treasuries of the rich and make the abundance 
of poverty to abound unto the riches of liberality. All 
frantic appeals for miscellaneous collections ; all eagerness 
to get large gifts without regard to the character of the 
donors ; all representation of the pressing needs of God's 
cause, as though He were a pauper and a beggar; all 
flattery of godless givers which encourages them to think 
they have put God under obligation by their gifts, while 
living in rebellion ; all slavish dependence upon others than 
disciples for funds for work that only disciples can either 



CULTURE OF GRACE OF GIVING 125 

conduct or appreciate; all this is in violation of Bible 
principles and causes blessing to be withheld. 

Great efforts to raise funds, with a trumpet flourish over 
success, to be followed by a reaction, a proportionate de- 
cline in giving, depletion of treasuries, and a minor strain 
of complaint and despondency, — surely, this is not God's 
way of carrying on His work. Raising money according 
to a worldly fashion is walking by sight, not by faith, as 
also is using pressure of appeal more than the prayer that 
prevails, depending on importunity with man more than on 
importunity with God. We must not forget Who opens 
human hearts and sends forth laborers into His harvest, 
and bestows the spirit of liberality ; nor must we look to 
human patronage in a work that by its nature disdains any 
patron but the Lord himself. 



CHAPTER X 

THE MOVEMENT AGAINST RITUALISM AND SACERDO- 
TALISM * 

The Anglican Church, conspicuously, is in the throes 
of a great convulsion. Like an earthquake for which pent- 
up fires have long been preparing, and of which lesser up- 
heavings have been the premonitory symptoms and signals, 
this modern outbreak has for more than a quarter of a 
century given increasing indications that the coming con- 
flict was inevitable, and a meeting for protest convened in 
Albert Memorial Hall in London, in January, 1899, under 
the chairmanship of Baron Kinnaird, ten thousand Prot- 
estants assembling to give their grievances a voice. 

The crisis has been hastened, partly by the bold, alarm- 
ing, and flagrant practices of the Ritualists and Roman- 
ists in the English Church, and partly by that astonish- 
ing exposure of the facts found in Walter Walsh's " Secret 
History of the Oxford Movement," which had so rapid a 
sale that it was at one time difficult to get a copy, not- 
withstanding large and repeated editions. That book 
ought to be read by every lover of the Protestant and Re- 
formed faith, and of a simple apostolic worship. No such 
volume has been published for half a century, and it can be 
understood only by a careful and candid reading. It ex- 
hibits the candor that it challenges in others, and at the 
same time is marked by a courtesy, rare in controversy. 
Mr. Walsh claims to have reluctantly undertaken the 
work, under pressure of duty to open the eyes of loyal 

* " The Secret History of the Oxford Movement," By Walter Walsh, pub- 
lished by the Church Association, London. 

126 



MOVEMENT AGAINST RITUALISM 127 

churchmen to what is going on beneath the surface; and 
being reluctantly compelled to his task of unearthing 
church secrets, he boldly drags forth into the daylight a 
hideous brood of monsters that have been rapidly and in- 
sidiously undermining the foundations of the Anglican 
Church as a Protestant, reformed, and anti-Romanist 
body. 

One conspicuous feature of this volume is that these 
secret and subtle plotters, who seem Jesuits in disguise, 
are made to tell their story in their own words. Full ref- 
erences and proofs are given for all statements made, and 
the confirmation is drawn from the writings of the Ritual- 
ists themselves, almost all authorities quoted and appealed 
to being ritualistic. 

The book thus appears to be an unanswerable array of 
facts, and a fair arraignment of the parties and the prac- 
tices which it exposes. Secrecy has been the veil behind 
which these objectionable movements have been carried 
on. Ritualistic societies of this secret character have been 
annually increasing in number and growing in member- 
ship and influence for years, until the Church of England 
is honeycombed with them, and the ultimate object appears 
unmistakably to be corporate reunion with the Church 
of Rome. 

One feature of Mr. Walsh's volume is that it gathers 
together the scattered evidence found in various biogra- 
phies and letters of those who have been the head plotters 
and actors in this apostasy from Protestantism, and masses 
the testimony so as to give it force and weight. Much 
that in the earlier history of affairs was successfully con- 
cealed has been revealed, including the secret or private 
documents of the Ritualists, with reports of speeches ac- 
tually made in the secret meetings, where freedom was 
naturally given to the real expression of the intent and 
purpose of the actors. 



128 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

The secret history of the Priest of Absolution is here for 
the first time brought to light. The exposure, made 
twelve years ago in the House of Lords, by Lord Redes - 
dale, of the indecencies of the manual used by ritualistic 
father confessors, roused throughout Britain a great ex- 
citement, and so alarmed the brethren of the secret Society 
of the Holy Cross (S. S. C), that they met to consult as 
to their course, and the full reports of their conferences, 
printed for members only, are here open to inspection. 

The exposure has come none too soon, and it is none 
too bold. For the Church of Rome, even Protestants 
may have some respect and forbearance, which it presents 
itself in its proper garb and without any false pretenses : 
but not for a movement, which, in the guise of Protestant- 
ism, is poisoning the very fountains of the reformed faith 
and worship? This is an act of ecclesiastical treason 
which has no more claim to either concealment or for- 
bearance than the acts of a traitor in the state. 

Mr. Walsh's four hundred pages ought to open the eyes 
of all lovers of pure faith and church life. Here the veil 
of estheticism and elaborate ceremony is rent asunder from 
top to bottom, showing the real intent and tendency of 
artistic musical services, spectacular display, imposing 
ceremonial, gorgeous man-millinery, and the importations 
of papal notions and customs, such as the confessional, the 
mass, prayers for the dead, etc. ; and, behind all this out- 
ward pomp and grandeur, we catch a glimpse of the real 
doctrines and practices which Protestants abhor and de- 
nounce. 

Mr. Walsh's book is not, however, the only expositor 
of this occult Jesuitism in the English Church. One has 
only to put patent facts together to see that the tendencies 
of things are by no means latent only. Ritualism has been 
getting bolder and more defiant until there is little hesita- 
tion as to open collision with the bishops, as well as with 



MOVEMENT AGAINST RITUALISM 129 

all remonstrants. Not only confusion, but anarchy pre- 
vails, and some diocesans confess, as did Dr. Ryle, the late 
evangelical bishop of Liverpool, their practical helplessness 
to contend with the sons of Anak that have their strong- 
hold in the very " city of priests ; " and, alas ! in too many 
cases the bishops themselves are either ritualists, or con- 
nive at what they ought to suppress. 

No one disputes the right of men in a land of liberty to 
follow conviction, or even tastes and preferences. But 
no man has a right to stay in a church after he is not in 
vital sympathy with its doctrine and polity ; and, above all, 
do common honesty and decency demand that there shall be 
obedience to law, regard for order, and a still more sacred 
respect for the personal obligations assumed and implied 
in the ministry of a church. For any man, while yet in 
a church or denomination, secretly or openly to defy its 
constitutional law and constituted authority, is a first-class 
offense against the common law of conscience. 

The saddest part of this volume is perhaps the unveiling 
of the downright disingenuousness and sometimes delib- 
erate deception and hypocrisy of men who have at least 
been credited with sincerity of conviction and loyalty to 
conscience. One feels a moral shudder at the atrocious 
frauds and unblushing lies of leading men in the Tracta- 
rian and ritualistic developments of the last seventy years. 
Ever since 1833, which Cardinal Newman marked as the 
starting point of the Tractarian movement, there has been 
the forging of a chain of deceptions, to which link after 
link has been added. The Disciplines Arcani, or secret 
teaching of the early centuries of. corruption, seems to have 
been revived; and the so-called " Economical " mode of 
teaching and arguing has been one of the prominent links 
in this chain. Cardinal Newman himself defines these 
two — one as " withholding the truth," the other, as " set- 
ting it out to advantage," quoting with approval the ad- 



130 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

vice of Clement of Alexandria, who gives rules to guide 
the Christian in " speaking and writing economically:" 

He both thinks and speaks the truth ; except when careful treat- 
ment is necessary, and then, as a physician for the good of his 
patients, he will lie, or rather utter a lie, as the sophists say. 
He gives himself up for the church* 

Mr. Walsh's book traces the history of the development 
of this Oxford movement, and any one can see how nat- 
ural the steps are from secret doctrines, learned not from 
the Word of God but from the church, to the erection of 
tradition as of coordinate value and authority with Scrip- 
ture, and so on to the sanctioning of customs, not only ex- 
trascriptural, but antiscriptural. 

From the Ritualists themselves it is made plain that the 
secret societies within the Church of England were for 
" the dissemination of High Church principles," and that 
because the open declaration of this purpose would in- 
volve risk to its success, privacy and secrecy and subtlety 
were resorted to in place of publicity and straightforward- 
ness. The names of the instigators of this movement 
were, so far and so long as possible, concealed. For fif- 
teen years no list of brethren of the S. S. C. found its way 
into Protestant hands, and the printed lists had no dates 
or places of issue by which to be traced to -their source 
and time of publication. It seems difficult to believe that 
such men as Cardinal Newman, Cardinal Manning, Dr. 
Pusey, Joshua Watson, Harrell Froude, Prof. Mozley, 
F. W. Faber, and even Mr. Gladstone could have winked 
at such methods. A letter from Newman has been pub- 
lished, in which he confesses, " I expect to be called a 
papist when my opinions are known." Mr. Froude ac- 
knowledges that he is doing what he can " to proselytize in 
an underhand way," and it becomes too plain that many 

* Secret History, etc., p. a. 



MOVEMENT AGAINST RITUALISM 131 

who have in public professed to be evangelicals, have in 
private made quite other professions, and belonged to 
secret societies, whose object was unmistakably Romish. 
Among the doctrines held back in reserve for the initiated 
only, were such as the atonement, free grace, etc., which 
Protestants reckon fundamental and for universal accept- 
ance. To conceal their real intent, some of these Tracta- 
rians were " crypto-papists," and actually wrote against 
popery while seeking to promote it, " teaching people 
Catholicism without their suspecting it," so " that they 
might find themselves Catholics before they were aware."* 

Newman is thus shown to have abused and denounced 
the Church of Rome to cover his real aims, and after- 
ward, when his temporary purpose was answered, with- 
drawing all these charges. 

A letter is published from Rev. Wm. G. Ward, who 
was Newman's successor in leading the Tractarians, in 
which he confessed that he no longer believed the English 
Church to be a part of the true Church at all, but " felt 
bound to retain his external communion with her mem- 
bers, because he believed that he was bringing many of 
them toward Rome" (p. 15). We are not surprised that 
such a man upheld equivocation, and said, " Make your- 
self clear that you are justified in deception, and then lie 

LIKE A TROOPER " (p. l6). 

Newman's " Ccenobitium " at Littlemore, was ostensibly 
a " hall " for students, in reality a monastery, as he ac- 
knowledged to a friend. Yet he elaborately and in terms 
denied this to the bishop of Oxford. We can understand 
his Apologia, in the light of such conduct, when he says : 
" There is some kind or other of verbal misleading which 
is not sin ; " but we fail to see that such use of words is 
" not sin." 

Mr. Walsh brings to the light of noonday not only the 

* Ibid, page 10. 



132 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

secret history of the Oxford movement, but the Society 
of the Holy Cross, the secrecy of the ritualistic confes- 
sional, and the Priest in absolution, the Order of Corporate 
Reunion, the ritualistic sisterhoods, the Confraternity of 
the Blessed Sacrament, etc. 

As to Ritualism, a careful study of the Old Testament 
will reveal similar snares, exposed long ago, in the golden 
calf of Aaron, the brazen serpent of Moses, the ephod of 
Gideon, Micah's house of gods, the carved altar of Ahaz, 
etc., all of which are recorded for our admonition. 

And now, in view of all this, and much more that can 
not here be written, the solemn crisis is now before the 
whole Church of God, to be met fairly and squarely and 
promptly, viz. : What are Protestants going to do about 
the ritualizing and Romanizing tendencies so patent, 
especially in prelatical churches? 

There is much talk about ritualism which does not touch 
the core and root of the evil, which is sacerdotalism, or 
priestly pretension. A priest is something foreign to New 
Testament ideas, since all believers are in Christ priests, 
having priestly access and prerogatives. The word priest 
is justified as an abbreviation of presbyter; but practically 
it is a corruption of the Scriptural term, and represents 
one who (pre-sto) stands before God in place of the be- 
liever — assuming the mediatorial place and function. 

Whatever be the etymology, modern sacerdotalism is a 
subtle system of imposture which puts a human being be- 
tween the believer and Christ. It establishes a merely hu- 
man and arbitrary medium of approach, thus preventing 
immediate access to and fellowship with God. It renders 
every believer or inquirer liable to forfeit all true blessing 
by the fallible and even false nature of that mediation 
which alike perverts his conceptions of Divine things, and 
misleads him in his supposed conformity to the Divine 



MOVEMENT AGAINST RITUALISM 133 

will. It is an unwarranted priestly intrusion between a 
human soul and God. 

To see this clearly we need only to put these pretensions 
together. To consider the confessional, prayers for the 
dead, etc., apart from this system, is to lose their main 
significance. These are not disjecta membra, but members 
in a body to which they belong, and in which, with sin- 
gular skill, they are fitted to their place. There are at 
least seven parts of this body of doctrine: I. Priestly 
ordination. 2. Priestly regeneration. 3. Priestly indoc- 
trination. 4. Priestly absolution. 5. Priestly coniirma- 
tion. 6. Priestly administration. J. Priestly intercession. 
In other words, ordination, baptismal regeneration, tra- 
dition, confession, confirmation, the real presence, and 
prayers for the dead. 

1. The basis of all the rest is Priestly Ordination, which 
puts priestly intervention between a believer and his right 
to act as a minister of Christ, and is supposed to confer, 
by a sort of succession in grace, the Divine authority to 
preach and administer sacraments. In the primitive days 
all believers preached (Acts viii: 1-4, xi: 19, 20), and 
Philip baptized, tho he was set apart for a temporal office, 
and was, therefore, a " layman," and one case breaks the 
sacred line. Priestly ordination is the head of the whole 
system of sacerdotalism, and, if granted, it carries the 
rest with it by making a human authority necessary for all 
ministry, so that one is dependent for all else upon such 
priestly intervention. 

2. Then follows Baptismal Regeneration, which puts 
the ordained priest between the infant child and the church. 
Infant baptism becomes the means of regenerating the in- 
fant with the Holy Spirit and engrafting the child upon 
the body of Christ. 

3. Next follows Priestly Interpretation or indoctrina- 



134 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

tion, which puts the priest between the baptized child and 
the Word of God. The priest becomes the teacher of the 
child, and churchly tradition the practical source of au- 
thority. Wherever the testimony of Scripture is consid- 
ered doubtful, tradition interprets it; and wherever the 
two conflict, tradition takes precedence. Hence the Bible 
is not a safe book to be put into the hands of any but 
priests. 

4. Priestly Absolution naturally follows. The child is 
supposed to err, fall short, commit sin, and the only way 
to get clear of it is by the way of the confessional. This 
puts the priestly intervention between the sinner and Di- 
vine forgiveness. 

5. Next follows Priestly Confirmation, in which is sup- 
posed to be found the channel of grace to the believer, as 
in ordination to the priestly candidate. This puts priestly 
intervention between the " child of the church " and the 
Holy Spirit. 

6. Then comes Priestly Administration of the Euchar- 
ist, whereby some mysterious change — transubstantiation, 
consubstantiation, or whatever it be called — takes place, 
in priestly hands, in the " bread and cup," so that they 
become the body and blood of the Lord. Hence the Lord's 
table becomes an altar, and the Supper a sacrifice. This 
puts priestly intervention between the child of the church 
and Christ's atoning death and sustaining life. 

7. Finally come Prayers for the Dead. The soul depart- 
ing lingers in some intermediate state of more or less im- 
perfect and disciplinary suffering, until priestly interces- 
sion relieves it of disabilities, and promotes fuller en- 
trance into the heavenly estate. This puts priestly inter- 
vention between the human spirit and final entrance into 
glory. What must the dying thief have done with no 
priest to baptize, instruct, confirm, absolve, administer 
the " real presence," or pray for the repose of his soul ! 



MOVEMENT AGAINST RITUALISM 135 

To put all this together is to see the singular and subtle 
completeness of the whole system. If priestly ordination 
is the head of this body of sacerdotal pretension, we may 
compare baptismal regeneration to the breath which gives 
life; priestly interpretation, to the brain which supplies 
thought; priestly absolution, to the hands which apply 
cleansing water ; priestly Eucharistic administration, to the 
mouth which receives food; priestly confirmation, to the 
blood which affords vigor; and prayers for the dead to 
the feet whereby all final advance within the doors of 
heaven is secured. 

It is not necessary to contend that for none of these 
features of modern sacerdotalism there is any Scriptural 
foundation. All most subtle error is at bottom a half 
truth, and herein lies its fatal character; but whenever 
even a Scriptural truth or practise is lifted into unscrip- 
tural prominence, or is linked with other unscriptural 
teachings and practises, it becomes error. Truth is wholly 
such only while it holds its true position and true relation. 
The most sacred teaching, if made to uphold error, be- 
comes practically erroneous. 

The question is whether any permanent and thorough 
cure of the existing malady in the church can be found 
until disciples renounce the whole system of sacerdotalism 
as such, and return to the simple New Testament faith and 
life. A system of idolatry is the inevitable outcome of the 
present growth of the sacerdotal pretensions which too 
many meet with practical apathy. The priest is virtually 
assuming Divine prerogatives ; in the eyes of the victims 
of sacerdotal superstition, the water of baptism is becom- 
ing holy water, the bread of the Lord's Supper an adorable 
" host," the confessional a throne of grace, the priest a 
Divine teacher and intercessor, and the church, instead of 
a mere helper in drawing nigh to God, a hopeless barrier 
— not a means to an end, but itself the end. 



136 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

There seems to be no alternative but to " worship the 
Lord in the beauty of holiness/' and disregard the claims 
of mere artistic and esthetic beauty. Under the guise of 
symbolism and sacramentarianism and sacerdotalism, we 
are in danger of creating new Nehushtans, and erecting 
new houses of idols under the name of Christian churches. 
A sagacious Christian philosopher said thirty years ago, as 
he watched the tendencies already too apparent in Prot- 
estant churches, that the only safety would be found in 
" excluding any practises not enjoined or encouraged in 
the New Testament." 



CHAPTER XI 

THE PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT — PILKINGTON OF UGANDA* 

The crowning external revelation of the Word of God 
is the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and the corresponding 
internal revelation of the Spirit in and to the believer is 
the crowning experience of the Divine life and love. 

Of all the important spiritual movements of the half 
century not one compares in importance with the revival 
of interest in the person, functions, and offices, the in- 
working and out-working of the Spirit of God. Without 
this there could be no other truly spiritual movement or 
development; this gives character, genuineness, spiritual 
quality, and permanent stability to all other godly growths 
in knowledge, usefulness, and power. 

This may be called the Pentecostal Movement, since 
the bestowment of the Spirit for fuller activity in and 
through the believer, dates from Pentecost. But by this 
name is now meant the general movement, peculiar to our 
day, in the direction of new emphasis upon the work of 
the Spirit of God, in three aspects — sanctifying, endu- 
ing, and filling. If any regard these latter terms, enduing 
and filling, as equivalent, we do not care to defend the dis- 
tinction, but only to lay heavy stress upon one all-im- 
portant fact and need; the fact that most disciples prac- 
tically have never yet known the Holy Spirit as a presid- 
ing and controlling power, and the corresponding need, 
which, of all deficiencies in Christian experience, is the 
most lamentable and deplorable. 

* See " Pilkington of Uganda," by C. F. Harford-Battersby, published by 
Marshall Bros., London, and Fleming H. Re veil Co., New York. 

137 



138 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

First of all, we call attention to the Scripture teaching, 
and to the progress of doctrine, so conspicuous when the 
great leading texts are set in order as they occur in the 
New Testament. 

Our Lord, as Matthew reports, says, in that first great 
discourse which held the germs of all His subsequent 
teaching : 

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto 
your children, how much more shall your Father which is 
in Heaven give good things to them that ask Him? 
Matt, vii: 11. 

Luke, in his report of the same discourse, specifies a 
particular good gift: 

How much more shall your Heavenly Father give the 
Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? Luke xi: 13. 

Upon a comparison of the Gospel narratives this ap- 
pears to be the earliest statement, in the order of time, 
found in the New Testament, as to the gift of the Spirit 
of God to the believer in answer to prayer. Up to this 
point there had been no mention of the Spirit, except in 
His relation to the person of Christ, or as connected with 
the gift of prophecy, as in Zacharias, Elizabeth, Simeon, 
etc., or by way of teaching the new birth, etc. But, from 
this point on, it becomes clearer, that believing prayer can 
claim of the Father a special gift of the Spirit, and a few 
texts bearing upon the development of this doctrine should 
ever be written large in the memory. Conspicuous among 
these are the following: 

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood 
and cried : If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and 
drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath 
said, out of his belly (i. e., the inner man) shall flow rivers 
of living water. But this spake He of the Spirit which 
they that believe on Him should receive. For the Holy 



THE PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT 139 

Ghost was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glori- 
fied. John vii : 37-39. 

At this stage of progress in the unfolding of the truth, 
we learn that this gift of the Holy Spirit will make the 
disciples' inner life a fountain of life to others, so that from 
him shall flow spiritual rivers of Spirit power and influ- 
ence; and that such gift of the Spirit waits for Christ's 
glorification as the condition of its bestowment. 

Next, we meet that inspiring passage in Mark, so 
unique in its teaching as to the condition of a proper 
asking : 

And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in 
God (or reckon on God's good faith). Therefore I say 
unto you, What things soever ye desire when ye pray, be- 
lieve that ye receive them and ye shall have them. Mark 
xi: 22-24. 

Here we rise to another sublime height of teaching. 
The first passage quoted revealed God's fatherly readiness 
to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him ; the second 
showed the effect of such gift in making the recipient a 
reservoir of living spiritual power and blessing; and now 
we are taught that, in asking for such a supremely good 
gift, we must reckon on the faithfulness of God to His 
promise ; not only desiring and praying for the Spirit, but 
trusting our Heavenly Father to do as He says. We are 
not to depend upon our consciousness of some new force 
within, or on our own inward frames of feeling. It is a 
question, not of perceiving, but of receiving. If we come 
and desire and ask, having no doubt that God will keep 
good faith with us, we shall have this good gift. 

One other stage in this progressive teaching is the last 
discourse of our Lord, recorded in John xiv-xvi, where 
there is more teaching about the Spirit than in all the pre- 
vious narratives of the four Gospels combined ; out of this 



140 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

wonderful talk of our Master, we select two very signifi- 
cant sentences: 

He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. John 
xiv: 17. 

Here there appears to be a declaration of a present fact 
and an intimation of a fact yet future. (^ a P J v ^ lv /*evet, 
xai bv vjxiv sdrat.) There was a sense in which the Holy 
Spirit was already with them, but there was another sense 
in which He was yet to be revealed as in them. 

The other text is John xvi : 7 : 

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: It is expedient for 
you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter 
will not come unto you; but, if I depart, I will send Him 
unto you. 

What mysterious elevations of truth! So important 
was this gift that to receive it would repay for Christ's 
withdrawal ! How few have ever reflected on that fact and 
realized its awe-inspiring grandeur! To have the per- 
sonal companionship of the Lord Jesus, but lose the fulness 
of the Spirit's revelation within, would be a calamity — so 
Christ himself teaches. 

How immeasurably important then, that every disciple 
should know his own need of the Spirit, should feel the im- 
possibility of any compensation for such a lack, should un- 
derstand how ready God is to give the Spirit, and should 
pray in faith for the gift ! 

There is one ditch into which many believers practically 
fall, so that they never get to the firm resting-place of ac- 
tual reception of this crowning gift of God. They say the 
Spirit of God was on the day of Pentecost given, fully, 
finally, and to all believers, and hence is not to be sought 
or asked in prayer as an unbestowed boon. In one sense 
this is true, but in another sense it is a snare. There was 
on the day of Pentecost an outpouring of the Spirit on all 



THE PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT 141 

believers. The new dispensation of the Holy Spirit was 
then inaugurated, and we are not, therefore, to look for 
any such bestowment of the Spirit. But, individually, we 
find disciples filled with the Spirit subsequently, and in 
Ephesians v : 18, we find a distinct command, " Be filled 
with the Spirit." There must therefore be some true 
sense in which disciples are to claim, receive, and avail 
themselves of this last and greatest gift of God. Christ 
was once offered for all, a sacrifice for sin, but every new 
believer takes Christ as a Savior, and so makes practically 
available the work of Christ for sinners ; and so the Holy 
Spirit was once for all given, but every believing child of 
God accepts and receives the fulness of this gift by faith, 
so that practically it is as tho the Spirit had been specially 
given to him. 

For the philosophy of the matter we are not jealous, but 
for the practical realization of the fact we well may be; 
and it is perhaps best to drop all mere punctilious criticism 
of terminology and verbal expression, in the intense desire 
that all disciples may know and make real their experi- 
mental share in the Pentecostal gift. 

One fact knocks over all hostile theories: Men and 
women are in our day coming into an entirely new experi- 
ence by the enduement of the Holy Spirit. 

The case of George L. Pilkington, of Uganda, presents 
an instance in point. 

Referring to his own need of the Spirit he says : 

If it had not been that God enabled me after three years in the 
mission field to accept by faith the gift of the Holy Spirit, I 
should have given up the work. I could not have gone on as I 
was then. A book by David, the Tamil evangelist, showed me 
that my life was not right, that I had not the power of the Holy 
Ghost. I had consecrated myself hundreds of times, but I had 
not accepted God's gift. I saw now that God commanded me to 
be filled with the Spirit. Then I read : " All things whatsoever 



142 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them and ye 
shall have them" (Mark xi: 24, R. V.), and claiming this 
promise I received the Holy Spirit. (P. 222.) 

I distinguished between the presence of the Holy Spirit with 
us and in us ; our blessed Lord said to His disciples, " He 
abideth with you and shall be in you." John xiv: 17. (P. 224.) 

" He that believeth on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers (not 
a stream or a simple river) of living water. Greater works than 
these shall ye do because I go unto the Father." What are these 
rivers and where are these mighty works? We must ask rather, 
where is " he that believeth on Him ? Surely, He is not un- 
faithful to a single line of His promise. What wonder that in- 
fidelity abounds when the worst infidelity of all is in our hearts! 
What wonder if popery increases, when we have dethroned the 
Holy Spirit from our hearts!" (P. 223.) 

About this same time a great desire arose for mission 
services to be held in Uganda. In the absence of special 
missioners from abroad, it occurred to the missionaries 
that God wanted to use them, and all in prayer newly 
dedicated themselves to Him, and asked Him to baptize 
them anew. This was December 8, 1893. 

That very morning they began. They had not told the 
people, but went up after prayer, at the usual time, believ- 
ing for a blessing. Mr. Pilkington conducted the meet- 
ing. They sang 

Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? 

and Mr. Pilkington prayed, and then spoke of a very sad 
case which had indirectly led to the conviction of the need 
of such meetings, and of a new power from God coming 
on the native church and even on the missionaries. A 
certain Musa Yakuganda had asked to have his name 
given out as having returned to the state of a heathen, and 
his reason was startling : " I get no profit from your re- 
ligion." Being asked if he knew what he was saying, he 
replied : " Do you think I have been reading seven years 
and do not understand ? Your religion does not profit me 



THE PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT 143 

at all. I have done with it." Pilkington pointed out 
what a cause of shame and reproach such a case was to 
the missionaries. The need of the deeper and fuller life 
and power of the Spirit took strong hold on the mission- 
ary preachers and teachers, and first of all humbled them 
before God. Then blessing came to the whole native 
church, until hundreds were all praying for forgiveness, 
while others were in the simplest language praising God. 

Each morning fully five hundred were present, and they 
found themselves in the midst of a great spiritual revival, 
and their joy was beyond expression. The after meetings 
saw two hundred waiting for individual dealing. Among 
other fruits of this work was that same Musa who had 
announced his return to heathenism. Great chiefs boldly 
confessed their wish to accept Christ, and one chief, who 
had been a leading teacher but suspended for misconduct, 
acknowledged, in the presence of the king and his pages, 
that he had not before accepted the Lord Jesus as his 
Savior, but did so then. The missionaries appointed the 
week following the mission services as a time for special 
meetings for the deepening of the spiritual life. 

Those wonderful three days, Dec. 8-10, 1893, will never 
be forgotten. They were the signal for years of blessing, 
pentecostal in character and wonderful in results. First 
of all God had brought the missionaries to humble them- 
selves, feel their need, and seek larger blessing — to be filled 
with the Spirit. Then they were led to confess to the 
native church their previous lack of faith, of power, and 
of prayer, and to ask God for forgiveness. Then came 
similar humiliations and confessions among the Christians 
of Uganda. Many who had been looked upon as leading 
disciples began to see their lack also, and to realize a new 
force and power in their Christian experience. In fact, 
such a spirit of confession and humiliation was poured 
out on the native church, and such secret sins came to light 



144 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

in this great upturning and uncovering of hidden things, 
that the missionaries felt called on to restrain these public 
confessions, lest they should bring too great reproach on 
the name of Christ, and the awakened backsliders were 
counseled to seek the brethren for private confession and 
prayer before God. 

The conversions and reclamations were almost invari- 
ably connected with knozvledge of the Word of God. At 
the Liverpool Conference in 1896, Mr. Pilkington said: 

" The power to read the Bible is the key to the kingdom 
of God. With the exception of one case, I have never in 
Uganda known any to profess Christ who could not read." 

Throughout this great revival God put special and very 
remarkable emphasis upon the Holy Scriptures as the 
means both of the new birth and the new quickening in 
spiritual life. Reading houses, or, as the people called 
them, " synagogi," were built where native teachers could 
instruct the people under the supervision of more experi- 
enced workers. This system became a leading feature of 
the work in Uganda, and was the means of causing the re- 
vival which started in the capital to spread that same year 
far and wide through the various outlying stations. 

By April 1, 1894, between thirty and forty teachers had 
offered themselves for such service in the country districts, 
and thirteen were solemnly sent out in one Sunday, and 
seven more the next week. Shortly word came from the 
islands of an enormous increase of " reading." A spirit of 
new inquiry was found, even among Roman Catholics and 
Moslems. In the autumn of 1894, before the church at 
Mengo fell in a great storm, at least 2,000 were assembling 
every weekday morning, and in the 200 country churches 
some 7,000 more, and on Sundays, 20,000 in the various 
places of meeting. Of these, 6,000 were in classes, under 
regular instruction ; and this great work, reaching out over 
a circle of territory three, hundred miles in diameter, and, 



THE PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT 145 

nearly one thousand in circumference, had to be directed 
by only twelve Europeans, who worked with the double 
hindrance of an imperfect knowledge of the language 
and constant liability to fever. Yet with all these disad- 
vantages, the work so rapidly extended that, when in 
December, 1894, the year was reviewed, some such results 
as the following were obvious as signs of God's moving : 

When the year began the number of country churches, 
reading rooms, or synagogi, did not exceed twenty ; at the 
close of the year there were ten times that number, and the 
ten largest would hold 4,500 persons. Exclusive of the 
capital, there were on week days not less than 4,000, and 
on Sundays, 20,000 hearers of the Gospel. The first 
teachers, paid by the native church, went forth in April, 
and in December there were 131 of these, in 85 stations, 
twenty of which, being outside Uganda proper, were in 
a sense foreign mission stations. Even these figures can 
not represent the whole work, nor does this number em- 
brace all the teachers, twenty of whom not reckoned in the 
above number were at work at Jungo. At Bu'si also, an 
island near Jungo, there were three churches, and 2,000 
people under instruction. The " readers " ordinarily be- 
came catechumens, and the catechumens candidates for 
baptism In 1893 the catechumens numbered 170, during 
the year 1894 some 800 were baptized, and 1,500 catechu- 
mens remained. The movement, so far from having ex- 
pended its force, seemed not yet to have reached its height, 
and there was every evidence that an enormous accession 
would yet come, as was the case. 

Mr. Pilkington, being in England on furlough, in 
1895-6, electrified his audiences by his stirring account of 
the dealings of God with the Uganda mission. Emphasis 
was laid on this fact, that the first step in this vivification 
of the church in Uganda was this, that the missionaries 
and teachers themselves were led to just views of their 



146 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

own deep need; they saw the absolute necessity for per- 
sonal consecration, and the experience of a direct and 
supreme work of the Holy Spirit in themselves. 

Here, then, is another mighty argument for seeking, 
with a desperate sense of helplessness, and with a confident 
faith in God's promise, Holy Ghost power. Not to Mr. 
Pilkington and his fellow-workers only, was this indis- 
pensable, but the whole native church of Uganda owes the 
almost unparalleled movement of that decade of years to 
the new enduements of power which proved even to these 
missionaries such a divine equipment for their work, and 
to the native evangelists also. 

A few examples of the efficiency of these Waganda 
evangelists will suffice. 

A missionary visiting a small island in the lake two or 
three years ago, found but one person who could read at 
all. Two teachers were sent, and, after nine months, sixty 
were reading the Gospel. Two teachers were sent to an- 
other island, and in a year one very rude church building, 
that even when uncomfortably full could hold but one 
hundred, had multiplied into four, one of which would 
hold seven hundred; the congregation of a hundred had 
multiplied tenfold, and fifty or more had been baptized. 

On the large island of Sese all the chiefs are Roman 
Catholics. Yet there are some three hundred and twenty 
Protestants, nicknamed " The people of the Holy Ghost," 
which, like the nickname " Christians " at Antioch, is an 
honor, not a reproach ; and these disciples, ignorant as they 
are, evince a like readiness with the early Christians to 
face opposition and persecution for His name, and no- 
where has a greater desire for " reading " been shown. 

The educational value of the reading of God's Word has 
been very noticeable in Uganda. The very physiognomy 
of the people seems to have been modified by it, so that it 
is almost possible to distinguish a reader by his outward 



THE PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT 147 

appearance. The reality of God seems to impress itself on 
the native mind more forcibly by this daily poring over the 
pages of the New Testament, at first mechanically and al- 
most blindly, then with eyes partially opened to catch a 
glimpse or a glimmering of the meaning, until, with an- 
other illumining touch of God, the Divine message of love 
is intelligently grasped. Sometimes the impression is like 
a driven nail clinched and fastened by a sermon, or a 
prayer service, or the faithful words of a friend. What 
a lesson God is thus teaching us all as to the honor and 
value He sets on His own Word, and this at a time when, 
more than ever before, even professed Christian teachers 
in Christian lands seem bent on lowering in the public 
mind the sense of the dignity and majesty of the Heavenly 
message. 

At first those of the Baganda who hear these words 
find them unintelligible; such terms as sin and salvation, 
love and faith, convey little meaning to minds that have 
been cast in the narrow and cramped mold of heathen- 
ism. But, as they hear and read, Scripture interprets it- 
self, and under the light of the Spirit they get totally new 
ideas of Divine mysteries. 

The outcome of this Holy Spirit revival in Uganda can 
not be measured; only from the Spirit comes the clear 
visiorl of Divine truth, as well as the inward experience 
of Divine life, and in the native preachers have been de- 
veloped remarkable spiritual discernment and power in 
presenting truth. 

A preacher at Mengo said in his sermon that " to form a 
judgment of man's deserts, man's way is to put into one 
scale his evil deeds and vices, and into the other his virtues 
and religious observances ; but that God's way in such a 
case would be to put both these into the same debit scale." 
This native preacher had learned that rudimental truth, 
hidden from many of the wise and prudent, that " all our. 



148 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

righteousnesses are as filthy rags," and that the only hope 
of justification is that the perfect obedience of our ador- 
able Lord, Jesus Christ, shall be placed in the credit scale, 
and so overbalance and outweigh our evil and selfish 
deeds. 

Another preacher, discriminating between inward heart 
piety on one hand and outward religious observances on 
the other, used the following apt and original simile : 

Religion may be compared to a banana (the natural food of 
the Baganda). The real heart religion is the juicy pulp; the 
forms and ceremonies are the skin. While the two are united 
and undivided the banana keeps good until it is used. And so 
it is with religion. Separate the forms from the spirit, and the 
one will be of no more value than the banana husk, while the 
latter will speedily decay and become corrupt, apart from the 
outward expression. Observances have their value in protecting 
the holy germ within, and fostering the feelings of the heart. 
(P. 248.) 

This discourse had its suggestion in a certain spirit of 
insubordination, which sought to rebel against the ordi- 
nances of the church. But, as Mr. Pilkington asks, 
" What European teacher could have used such a simile." 

Another native preacher, referring to Romish teaching, 
said: 

No poisoner gives poison meat if he would remain undis- 
covered. The devil knows that. He has two devices ; he will 
do one of two things; first try to deprive you of food, and if 
he can not, he will corrupt it. (P. 248.) 

Pilkington before British hearers pleaded earnestly for 
a sufficient force to take possession of this great opportu- 
nity in Uganda, for a hundred additional missionaries, men 
and women filled with the Holy Ghost, as organizers and 
leaders for native workers, at least ten of whom could 
master, and then translate into, the native tongues; ancj 
with rare insight into the true philosophy of missions he 



THE PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT 149 

urged a new policy of occupation. He contended that the 
only true method of distributing missionary workers is to 
send a large force where a desire for instruction and an 
aggressive missionary spirit have been strongly developed 
among the native converts, instead of sending the bulk of 
missionary force to places where there is neither desire for 
teachers nor a missionary spirit. And his argument is 
that the ultimate outcome of the former method will be 
far the greater in good. For instance, he says, after ten 
years little or no impression will have been made on the in- 
different and hostile community, and this begets depres- 
sion among the workers and in the church at home. 
Whereas, if the work, at the field where God's Spirit has 
been outpoured, were reenforced, it will so progress that it 
becomes a source of wide influence ; a strong native church 
is developed with a large force of native evangelists, and 
thus the fire God has kindled is carried to the other field 
and transferred to this other center. The result is en- 
couragement both among the missionary band and the 
supporters at home. 

So moving was this plea that the missionaries of the 
Church Missionary Society in India asked the society, 
when it could be done, to send candidates, offering to go 
to India, to Uganda, for the time being, instead, to avail 
themselves of the exceptional opening in that field, the 
growing conviction being that God's singular blessing in 
any particular field is a signal for a special reenforcement 
at that time of the force at work there. 

Mr. Pilkington gave, in Britain, a vivid picture of the 
Uganda work in the shape of four consecutive scenes, 
afterward issued in pamphlet form, and called " The 
Gospel in Uganda." 

A hundred thousand souls brought into close contact with the 
Gospel, half of them able to read for themselves; two hundred 
buildings raised by native Christians, in which to worship and 



ISO FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

read the Word of God; two hundred native evangelists and 
teachers wholly supported by the native church; ten thousand 
New Testaments in circulation ; six thousand souls seeking in- 
struction daily ; numbers of candidates for baptism, confirmation ; 
adherents and teachers more than doubling each year for six 
or seven years, and God's power shown by their changed lives — 
and all these results in the very center of the world's thickest 
spiritual darkness and death shade ! 

This was in 1896, and the later reports eclipse even this. 

The changes wrought by the Gospel in Uganda can be ap- 
preciated only by setting in sharp contrast the state of things in 
1880 and in 1895. 

Old Isaiah, " the good-natured giant," will tell you how three 
hundred brothers and cousins of the king were penned within 
the narrow limits of the dike, still visible by the roadside, two 
or three miles north of Mengo, and by his orders left there to 
starve to death ! A boy of fifteen lost sight of a goat he was 
herding, and his master cut off his ear. For a trifling misde- 
meanor both eyes were gouged out. An unfortunate courtier 
accidentally trod on the king's mat, and paid the penalty with 
his life. The king, simply to support his royal dignity, ordered 
the promiscuous slaughter of all who happened to be standing 
on his right and left hand, or all who might be met on the streets 
at a certain time, by a band sent out for the purpose of such 
slaughter. Should a remonstrance be made against killing the 
innocent, the answer would be, " If I only kill the guilty, the 
innocent will not respect me." Women and children were sold 
into helpless slavery and misery. Spirits were believed in, feared, 
propitiated, and worshiped. Charms were worn; woman was 
a beast of burden, etc. Christ and his Gospel has changed all 
this. Domestic slavery no longer has any legal status, and any 
slave may claim freedom, and this claim will be honored. 
Woman takes her place by man's side. Conversion has brought 
victory over vicious habits ; cruelty is seen to be cruelty, and 
around the Lord's table gather from time to time those who 
were once darkness, but now light in the Lord, " washed, sanc- 
tified, justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit 
of our God. 



CHAPTER XII 

BIBLE SCHOOLS, AND CONVENTIONS 

The commentator, Ewald, holding up a Greek New 
Testament, declared to his students, that that one little 
book had in it more than all the wisdom of the ages, — put- 
ting in one sentence the sublime secret of its hold on the 
mind, as well as the heart, of intelligent believers. This 
also explains the fact that, exactly in proportion to the 
actual prominence of the Bible in our faith and life, will 
holy living and holy serving most truly develop. 

The unique position of the Word of God lies in this, 
that it claims to be, and justifies the claim to be, the One 
Book which God has given to man as a revelation of His 
will. Its plenary inspiration and complete adaptation to 
man's wants make it at once, as James teaches, the perfect 
mirror of character; as David teaches, the perfect medi- 
cine for the soul ; as Paul teaches, the perfect mold of holy 
manhood (Rom. vi, 17. Greek) ; and, as all inspired wri- 
ters agree, the miracle-worker which transforms the heart 
and life. 

There is a reason, and a very special one, for giving to 
this authoritative Word of God an exaltation in our pres- 
ent daily life of study, which had been in previous cen- 
turies impossible. Few of us appreciate the difference be- 
tween . ancient and modern times, in the facilities for indi- 
vidual Bible reading and searching. In the remote days of 
Ezra, copies of the sacred books were so rare that all the 
multitude could hope to do would be to hear passages read 
and expounded, and such privileges brought overwhelm- 

151 



152 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

ing joy. (Nchemiah viii.) In Luther's days, only three 
and a half centuries since, the Bible was found only in 
convents and public sanctuaries, and even there chained to 
a pillar as a rare and costly treasure. 

Ruskin reminds us how books introduce to the company 
of the wise, and great, and good, at whose doors we other- 
wise so often wait vainly for admittance. What shall we 
then say of the supreme honor and privilege of Bible study, 
since this is the " open sesame " — the mystic watchword 
which opens the door to the true King's treasuries ! By 
this devout search into the Word of God we actually un- 
lock the secret chambers of God, and find that " where the 
Word of a King is, there is power." (Eccl. viii: 4.) 
Here the most marvelous wonders burst on our astonished 
eyes. The Bible is God's palace, and it has palatial apart- 
ments, indeed. There is one — the very sanctuary of the 
Word — where the living oracles are heard ; another, where 
the complex mirrors reflect all our past and present, and 
even forecast our future history; yet others which are 
chambers of peace, whose windows look out on the 
heavenly hills, and the very atmosphere of which is rest. 
The Bible has its picture galleries, with portraits of holy 
men and women, and, above all, the very image of the 
Son of God; it has its museum with the unfolding mys- 
teries of God, and the curious relics of antiquity for in- 
struction and admonition ; there is also a banquet-hall for 
the refreshment of all believers, where babes may find 
milk, and the strong man, meat and honey. And in one of 
these glorious rooms we may find the crown jewels, which 
are there in store for God's crowned kings in the day of 
Christ's coming. 

Neglect of the Scriptures is in a sense a sin that hath no 
forgiveness; for it implies irreparable damage to spiritual 
life and forfeiture of spiritual blessing. No repentance 
and reformation can ever restore the years which this can- 



BIBLE SCHOOLS, AND CONVENTIONS 153 

kerworm of indifference to the Word of God has eaten. 
What an insult to the royal Author, who puts in our hand 
the key to His treasure chambers ! What a sign of apathy 
and lethargy of soul, when the carnal ambition to be wise 
and great, and move in the society of the wise and great, 
actuates us more than the aspiration to be wise and great 
in God's eyes, and abide in His companionship ! Do Bible 
possessors realize that they have a chance to enjoy a uni- 
versity education in the school of God? That the Word 
of God is itself life and light, a passport to heavenly soci- 
ety, free to all alike, as children of the King? 

Believing and perceiving, as we do, that God has been 
by various voices calling His people to a new life of holy 
living and serving, it would be natural to expect that 
Bible study would form an inseparable condition of such 
advance. And what is more conspicuous than the fact 
that during the last half century the facilities for such 
search into the King's treasuries have been indefinitely 
multiplied, so that every man and woman may now possess 
a first-class copy of the Word, with the best helps, bound 
in the one cover, and all the material so well put together 
as to last with ordinary care for a lifetime. 

If the facilities for Bible study have so increased, Bible 
study itself has kept pace with them, for never were there 
so many careful and habitual searchers into the Word of 
God, nor so many new methods of helpful study. That 
devout and lamented Irishman, Harry Morehouse, first 
introduced into America, " Bible Readings " — a new way 
of comparing Scripture with Scripture — when he distrib- 
uted little slips of paper, each containing a text, illustrative 
of some great theme, like " Forgiveness," " Salvation," 
" Grace," " Eternal Life ; " and then, calling for the read- 
ing of them in succession, with a few words interposed 
as explanatory, or connecting links, the subject grew be- 
fore the assembled company as a building rises from cor- 



154 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

nerstone to capstone, till the climax of impression was 
reached. 

This and a multitude of other methods have brought 
the Bible itself to the front, as never before. And, tho 
some so-called Bible readings have been travesties, evin- 
cing no thorough search, and attracting derision as exam- 
ples of " grasshopper exegesis " or " kangaroo exegesis," 
from the monstrous leaps taken without regard to contex- 
tual difficulties, grand advance is due to these methods in 
promoting acquaintance with God's book. We thank 
Him for the Bible in a portable form; for the era of the 
Bagster and Oxford presses ; for the Sunday-school lessons, 
and the varied expositions of them; for the Bible-schools 
and conventions — and scores of other means whereby the 
great mass of believers, rich and poor, learned and igno- 
rant, old and young, may be henceforth without excuse if 
they do not know what rich mines of wealth are in the 
blessed Word, waiting to be dug into and explored. 

For a number of years now there have been held, espe- 
cially in summer, Bible-schools, or conferences, for the 
study of Scripture with the best aid that man can supply. 
The conference at Northfield, Mass., now so famous, and 
linked with that lover of Scripture, Dwight L. Moody, is 
perhaps the most conspicuous of all ; but that smaller con- 
ference known as the Niagara Conference, attended by 
about 300 believers, is perhaps second in spiritual power 
to no other, and is exclusively for biblical study and 
prayer. At the " Thousand Islands," " Geneva Lake," 
" Round Lake," " De Funiak Springs," etc., similar 
schools are held — indeed, the number is too large to enu- 
merate them. It will suffice to call attention to the one first 
mentioned, as an example. 

Every place has its atmosphere. Better sanitary condi- 
tions insure a delicious fragrance in place of unsavory 
odors, and healthful inspirations instead of malarial ex- 



BIBLE SCHOOLS, AND CONVENTIONS 155 

halations. In the higher realm of mind, intellectually and 
socially, morally and spiritually, every community has its 
atmosphere, and what is more needful than to improve the 
conditions on which depend a purer, holier influence ? 

Northfield, Mass., has become known as the " Home of 
Conventions," a New. England Jerusalem, whither the 
tribes of the Lord go up annually, to keep solemn feasts 
and joyful festivals. There is literally a yearly Feast of 
Tabernacles — for many are compelled to dwell in tents 
if not in booths; and a feast of Pentecost — for hundreds 
get a blessing from above. 

These conferences originated with Mr. Moody, who 
loved Northfield as his birthplace and home. His later 
career as an evangelist was conspicuous for quickening 
disciples as well as for arousing and converting sinners. 
As he went from place to place, he found many believers 
anxiously longing for a fuller salvation, a higher knowl- 
edge of God's Word, a deeper draught of the fullness of 
the Spirit ; and it occurred to him to call together at North- 
field, for a few weeks, such as yearned for closer fellow- 
ship with God, and greater power in service. Now that 
such convocations have a world-wide reputation and in- 
fluence, we gather up some historic fragments and give 
them a permanent form. 

The August Conference of 1900 was the eighteenth of 
its kind. The first was in 1880, and the second in 1881 ; 
then, Mr. Moody's campaigns in Great Britain caused 
an interval of three years ; but since 1885 they have been 
annual. 

In 1880 the call was mainly for "a convocation for 
prayer." It read thus: 

" Feeling deeply this great need, and believing that it Is in 
reserve for all who honestly seek it, a gathering is hereby called 
to meet in Northfield, Mass., from Sept. 1st to 10th inclusive, the 
object of which is not so much to study the Bible (tho the Scrip- 



156 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

tures will be searched daily for instruction and promises), as for 
solemn self-consecration, and to plead God's promises, and to 
wait upon Him for a fresh anointing of power from on high. 

" Not a few of God's chosen servants from our own land and 
from over the sea will be present to join with us in prayer and 
counsel. 

" All ministers and laymen, and those women who are fellow- 
helpers and laborers together with us in the kingdom and patience 
of our Lord Jesus Christ — and, indeed, all Christians who are 
hungering for intimate fellowship with God and for power to do 
His work — are most cordially invited to assemble with us. 

" It is also hoped that those Christians whose hearts are 
united with us in desire for this new enduement of power, but 
who can not be present in the body, will send us salutation and 
greeting by letter, that there may be concert of prayer with them 
throughout the land during these days of waiting." 

This conference in September, 1880, was attended by 
some three hundred persons, among whom was a delega- 
tion from Britain. East Hall, being then built, served in 
part to lodge visitors, but tents, garrets, — every available 
place — was in requisition, and the quiet village waked up 
to a new sensation — the dawn of a new era. The Con- 
gregational church was scarce large enough for a meeting 
place, and a large tent became needful. The predominant 
idea of that first conference was Spiritual Power; the 
doctrine of the Holy Spirit was dwelt upon, and prayer 
pervaded the meetings for a new effusion of power. Mr. 
Moody presided; and the meetings, devotional and heart- 
searching, left a deep and permanent impression. 

The convention of 1881 occupied the whole of August. 
The conspicuous figure was Dr. Andrew A. Bonar, of 
Glasgow, whose accuracy, precision, unction, can never 
be forgotten. He combined deep insight into truth with 
characteristic quaintness of manner and a strongly marked 
individuality; and, besides Mr. Moody, Dr. Pentecost, A. 
J. Gordon, J. H. Brookes, E. P. Goodwin, Evangelists 
Whittle, Needham, and Hammond, and Editors R. C. 



BIBLE SCHOOLS, AND CONVENTIONS 157 

Morgan and H. L. Wayland, were among the speakers. 
The leading feature was Bible Study. Every afternoon 
in the Congregational church one leading address, fol- 
lowed by briefer ones, treated in a somewhat connected 
presentation leading Christian doctrines. Morning and 
evening worship, and various side meetings of a devo- 
tional character, filled up the time. In the course of the 
month from eight hundred to nine hundred persons were in 
attendance. The school buildings, and every house that 
had spare rooms, was full, and a large delegation was 
present from across the sea. 

The convention of 1885 occupied ten days in August. 
Perhaps the prominent figure in this gathering was J. E. 
K. Studd, Esq., of London, who told the story of the 
movement among the English university students, and of 
the Cambridge band who went to China, among whom 
were Mr. Charles T. Studd and Mr. Stanley Smith. 
From Northfield Mr. Studd went to visit American col- 
leges and carry the sacred coals. Two famous temper- 
ance reformers were heard that summer, William Noble ? 
of London, and John B. Gough. Dr. A. J. Gordon spoke 
with great power on " Christian Life," and Dr. L. W. 
Munhall, Rev. W. W. Clark, and the writer, gave aid. 
" Marquand " and " Stone " halls being now built, became 
temporary hotels, the latter supplying the main auditor- 
ium, a tent near the road serving for additional and oc- 
casional gatherings. The predominant idea of this con- 
vention was Life and Service. Great prominence was 
given to foreign missions, and the interest culminated in 
a " call " issued by the convention, and signed by repre- 
sentatives of each Christian denomination, summoning a 
World's Conference on Missions, which call was one of 
the first steps which led to the great World's Conference 
of 1888, in Exeter Hall, London. 

In the 1886 convocation, Rev. Marcus Rainsford, of 



158 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

London, was conspicuous. His unfoldings of Bible truth 
were remarkable, but scarcely more so than the narratives 
by which they were illumined, drawn from his pastoral 
life. Drs. Nathaniel West, W. J. Erdman, H. M. Par- 
sons, and Mr. William E. Blackstone were heard, in ad- 
dition to the neighing of the usual " war horses." Per- 
haps the prominent idea of this convention was Dispensa- 
iional Truth, especially the Lord's Second Coming. 

This year was marked also by a convention — the first 
of its sort — of college representatives of the International 
Y. M. C. A., held at Mount Hermon, Mass., in the boys' 
school buildings, beginning July 7th, and continuing for 
twenty-six days. It owed its origin to a suggestion of 
Mr. L. D. Wishard, that these students should be called 
together for " a summer school of Bible Study." Invita- 
tions were sent to two hundred and twenty-seven college 
associations, and a total of about two hundred and fifty 
students responded, representing ninety institutions. Mr. 
Moody and Major Whittle, Drs. Gordon, Brookes, West, 
Prof. W. G. Moorehead, Rev. W. Walton Clark, and A. 
T. Pierson, with Messrs. Wishard and C. K. Ober, ad- 
dressed and taught the students. The first morning hours 
were given to " Association work ; " from 10 to 12, to sys- 
tematic teaching on Christian Evidences, Prophecy, Bible 
Analysis, etc. If any one idea was pre-eminent, it was 
God's Word and Work. Great Missionary meetings were 
held, at one of which ten young men, representing as many 
different peoples, — Siam, China, India, Persia, Armenia, 
Japan, Norway, Denmark, Germany, and the Indians of 
America, — made short addresses, and, at the close, re- 
peated, in their various tongues, " God is Love." It was 
like a new Pentecost, and proved the source of one of the 
greatest movements of our day. Some twenty-three had 
come to Mount Hermon pledged to the foreign field — the 
number rose to a full hundred before the students dis- 



BIBLE SCHOOLS, AND CONVENTIONS 159 

persed, and so hot did the missionary fires burn that 
two of their number were sent on a visiting campaign 
through the colleges. This was the origin of " The New 
Crusade," whose motto is " The Evangelization of the 
World in this Generation."* 

Two annual conventions were henceforth to move side 
by side. The year 1887 saw four hundred delegates, from 
some eighty-two colleges, assembled at Northfield from 
July 3 to 12. Perhaps the conspicuous personality was 
the late Prof. Henry Drummond, who then first spoke in 
America. Beside Drs. Gordon, Pierson, etc., Profs. John 
A. Broadus and L. T. Townsend, Rev. Jos. Cook and H. 
L. Hastings, and Dr. Jacob Chamberlain, of India, spoke. 
If any one thought ruled this convention, it was Prepara- 
tion for Service. 

The August convention of 1887, which surpassed all 
that preceded, held up a High Ideal of Character. Prof. 
Drummond, Prof. W. H. Green, of Princeton, Dr. Josiah 
Strong, author of " Our Country," Francis Murphy, the 
temperance agitator, as well as Drs. Gordon, Pierson, 
Pentecost, and Clark, were among the speakers. 

The students' conference of 1888 reached again four 
hundred, from ninety institutions; twelve delegates were 
from Europe, representing Oxford and Cambridge, Edin- 
burgh, and Utrecht. Dr. Broadus again taught, as did 
Dr. H. Clay Trumbull, Bishop Hendricks, Dr. Alex. Mac- 
Kenzie, and Prof. W. R. Harper ; Rev. Geo. W. Chamber- 
lain, of Brazil, Messrs. Wilder and Forman and Rev. J. 
Hudson Taylor fanned the missionary fires. 

The August convocation of the same year magnified 
Spiritual power. More foreign missionaries than at any 
previous gathering were there, and J. Hudson Taylor's 
deeply spiritual addresses swayed the great throng. 

* This motto was suggested by the writer, who has often been asked where 
he himself found it. Any one who will carefully examine Acts, xiii : 22 and 
36, will find its suggestion there. 



160 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

In the convention of 1889, among the new features were 
the addresses of Rev. I. D. Driver, from Portland, Oregon, 
a vigorous, forcible, original speaker, and of Bishops M. 
E. Baldwin, of Huron, and Cyrus D. Foss; Robert E. 
Speer, John G. Woolley, the temperance orator, and Pastor 
Charles Spurgeon, son of the metropolitan preacher, also 
gave addresses. Four hundred and seventy-three stu- 
dents were present at the college gathering, and fully the 
usual attendance was observed at the later conference. 

In 1890, three hundred and eighty students appeared 
from one hundred and twenty-one institutions. Prof. W. 
W. Moore, Pastor Adolph Monod, of Paris, Rev. H. G. 
Mowll, of London, Bishop Thoburn, of India, Rev. W. P. 
Prague, of China, Dr. R. S. MacArthur, of New York, 
and Dr. Charles Parkhurst will be remembered in connec- 
tion with this gathering. 

At the August conference the central thought was 
Christ, Consecration, the Holy Spirit, and again Rev. Mar- 
cus Rainsford gave grand help, and David Baron, a true 
prince of the house of David, opened up the Messianic 
prophecies, as only a converted Jew could. 

In 1 89 1 four hundred students again gathered, and Rev. 
John Smith, of Edinburgh, and John McNeill, the Scottish 
Spurgeon, were among the speakers. 

In August, Rev. F. B. Meyer, of London, made as deep 
an impression as any man who had ever spoken there. 
He struck the keynote, Holiness, which was maintained 
throughout. Dr. Edward Judson, Dr. J. E. Clough, of 
the Telugu station in India, Dr. J. R. Hykes, of China, 
Dr. H. C. Mabie, and Dr. Eddy, of Syria, all spoke. 

In 1892 Mr. Moody was in Britain, but Dr. A. J. Gor- 
don proved equal to the emergency and nobly led the Au- 
gust convention, at which Dr. J. T. Gracey, Dr. J. L. 
Nevius, Dr. Arthur Mitchell, and Dr. S. L. Baldwin spoke 



BIBLE SCHOOLS, AND CONVENTIONS 161 

on missions. Mr. J. R. Mott guided the students' con- 
ference. 

In 1893 Mr. Moody was again absent, during a part of 
the time, engaged in work in Chicago during the World's 
Fair, but Dr. Gordon once more took his place. Dr. Geo. 
E. Post, W. M. Upcraft, Dr. Lyman Jewett, and Dr. A. 
C. Dixon were among the speakers. This year inaugu- 
rated the young zv omen's conferences — over two hundred 
college women being present from thirty-one educational 
institutions, societies, and associations. They came to 
study the Word of Life as the sword of the Spirit, and to 
confer as to practical Christian work. This year, there- 
fore, a third annual conference took its place beside the 
other two. 

These conferences have gone on from year to year, each 
new series of conferences presenting one or more unique 
features, The group of teachers from America and Britain 
that have been on the platform at Northfield would prob- 
ably find no equal for variety of ability, and teaching power 
on the platform of any other annual conference. Kes- 
wick alone would suggest a comparison, but the platform 
of Keswick conferences is purposely restricted to those 
who by their doctrinal teaching and practical experience 
are identified with that particular movement. Mr. 
Moody's effort at Northfield was to secure any man from 
any quarter that could speak to edification, and some men 
were invited who would not be regarded by all evangelical 
believers as perfectly safe teachers, and whose presence 
on the conference platform created no little opposition. 
The fact is Northfield does not stand for any distinct form 
of belief or practice, provided there be a general acquies- 
cence in what is known as Bible truth. There has been 
some teaching there not often surpassed, as when Rev. 
Webb Peploe and Rev. Andrew Murray, Rev. G. H. C. 



i62 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

Macgregor and Campbell Morgan led the conferences. 
And now that Mr. Moody is no more, the question arises, 
will the conventions go on without their great originator 
and conductor, and will any one be found qualified to give 
them the hold they had in Mr. Moody's day on the popu- 
lar mind and heart ; for there is no doubt that Mr. Moody's 
personality was the center of attraction after all. 

As we review the history of these twenty years, a few 
general facts seem essential to the full annals we now 
record. 

First, the original purpose of these conventions has been 
permanently controlling. Bible study, mutual conference, 
devout praying, waiting for enduement, have been the con- 
spicuous features ; and, of late years, there has been much 
comparison of methods of Christian work. As the conven- 
tions have multiplied, and their influence has been en- 
larged, this little New England village has been taxed 
to its utmost to lodge and feed the gathering throngs, and 
in view of the large inflow of guests, addresses and Bible 
readings fill up the intervals between the convocations. 
As early as the first of May, parties seeking accommoda- 
tions can with difficulty obtain them, tho the accommoda- 
tions are at least fivefold what they were when that first 
assembly was convened in 1880! 

This " Saints' Rest," which unites many charms of 
Keswick, Mildmay, and Exeter Hall, affords a rare op- 
portunity to see, hear, and- come in contact with some of 
the men and women of the church universal, who, like 
John the Baptist, are " great in the eyes of the Lord." 
Taking the whole list of speakers since 1880, it may be 
doubted whether an equally varied and illustrious group- 
ing of ministers and evangelists, theological professors 
and college presidents, bishops and benefactors of hu- 
manity, foreign missionaries and home workers, has been 
found on any other convention platform. 



BIBLE SCHOOLS, AND CONVENTIONS 163 

Noble free-will offerings have here been made from a 
few hundred dollars up to three thousand, which on two 
occasions was given to Bishop Thoburn's work in India, 
and ten thousand for the evangelization work in Chicago, 
and toward fifty thousand for the new auditorium opened 
in 1894, and holding twenty-five hundred persons. 

We have given the Northfield Conventions prominence 
merely as a type of similar gatherings. The original pur- 
pose of them has somewhat expanded, until Northfield 
now stands for a sort of Ecumenical Council, annually 
meeting to consider the truths of the word and the claims 
of the work of God. Perhaps its present keynote is full 
as much aggressive activity for Christ, as anything; but 
this is largely owing to the strong personality of Mr. 
Moody himself, who was a born leader in active evangel- 
ism. 

What grand occasions are these Bible Conventions for 
stimulating all that is good in thought, in love, in life-giv- 
ing aims ! Harrison Gray Otis, perceiving that Daniel 
Webster, while speaking in Faneuil Hall, had lost the 
thread of his thought and broken the continuity of his ut- 
terance, sagaciously asked him a question, which touched 
the very quick of his being and at once roused to their 
full exercise all his giant powers. In such gatherings, 
somehow, a new impulse is constantly furnished, rousing 
to fullest exercise and exertion all the best that there is in 
the hearers ; so that for the sake of such living impulses 
to new consecration and activity, such new inspiration in 
Bible study and incentive to prayer, many go far, and stay 
long, at no little cost. They feel as J. Lothrop Motley 
did, in college, that they can spare the " necessities of life, 
but not its luxuries." Here is illustrated Arthur Hal- 
lam's famous aphorism, that the " Bible is God's book be- 
cause it is man's book, fitting at every turn and curve 
the windings of the human heart ; " and many there are 



1 64 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

who at Northfield and Keswick have learned so to love 
this Word, that they feel toward it some such devotion as 
Michael Angelo did for the famous Torso of Hercules, 
when he not only went to the Vatican museum to sketch 
it from every point of view, but, when sight failed, begged 
to be led where through the touch of his fingers he might 
experience delight in contact with its symmetry. 

Here believers get into touch with the men and women 
who move the world, and with God's Holy ones, some of 
whom are like Burke, whom you could not have met un- 
der a porch, while waiting for a shower to pass by, with- 
out the conviction that you had met an extraordinary 
person. 

The visits of Rev. F. B. Meyer, and notably of Preben- 
dary H. W. Webb-Peploe, of London, and Andrew Mur- 
ray, of Wellington, S. Africa (who were at Northfield 
in 1895), and the late G. H. C. McGregor introduced 
into Northfield conferences the grand teaching of Kes- 
wick. Indeed, since their visit it has been felt that 
what America most needs now is an annual gath- 
ering where the specific truths, so magnified in the Eng- 
lish Lake district, and so blessed to thousands of believers, 
shall receive prayerful attention. During the visit of 
Messrs. Murray and Webb-Peploe, the truth already 
taught in part by Mr. Meyer was so expressed, impressed, 
illustrated and enforced, that impressions were made 
which never can be forgotten; but, what is of far more 
consequence, believers actually did so appropriate divine 
promises as to enter upon a new career of victory over 
sin and rest life by faith. The Jordan of a new Consecra- 
tion was crossed, and the Land of Promise entered. " Kes- 
wick " is having its " clouds of witnesses " now in Amer- 
ica also. 

The Niagara Conference holds tenaciously to the study 
of the Word, and prayer, and there is felt to be a certain 



BIBLE SCHOOLS, AND CONVENTIONS 165 

advantage in the restriction and limitation of its purpose. 
There is no encouragement given to those who have a 
" speech " to make or a " cause " to present, and who are 
sometimes the bane of spiritual gatherings. 

Pastor Archibald G. Brown, lately visiting Boston, was 
asked to give some account of his work in London, and 
his narrative was thrilling. He attributed any success he 
had then enjoyed to two things : dependence on the Word 
and the Spirit of God; on Sunday mornings he gave a 
Bible reading, and on Sunday evenings, a simple Gospel 
sermon, and yet he baptized 6,000 believers in thirty 
years ! There were no meretricious attractions of art, 
music, sensational oratory, or secular festivity. Pastor 
Brown might have added, if his modesty had not forbid- 
den, that through the East London Tabernacle, thus edu- 
cated and edified by Bible teaching, a work was done for 
London and for far off lands, that any congregation 
might envy. 



CHAPTER XIII 
woman's work at home and abroad 

The " Diamond Jubilee " of the accession of Queen 
Victoria naturally suggested the marvelous development 
of Christian womanhood during the half century in all the 
manifold forms and phases of missionary and philan- 
thropic activity. Among all the achievements of the 
Victorian era, none is perhaps more conspicuous than 
what may be called The Epiphany of Women — i. e. } her 
emergence out of the obscurity of centuries into some- 
thing like her true position and relation as to the work of 
God. It is also a curious coincidence that such emergence 
should so exactly correspond with the period during which 
a woman has occupied the throne of the most prominent 
of Protestant kingdoms, and, during sixty years — the 
longest reign of a woman on record — has challenged ad- 
miration by her unblemished personal character and Chris- 
tian influence! Victoria may well stand as the historic 
type of the era of woman's development as a distinct and 
separate factor in the Kingdom of God. 

In the Old Testament seven women stand out with 
singular and unique distinctness, namely, Eve, the uni- 
versal mother ; Sarah, the mother of the faithful ; Miriam, 
the minstrel prophetess ; Deborah, the ruler and judge ; 
Esther, the interceding Persian Queen; the Queen of 
Sheba, and the Queen of Massa who seems to have been 
the mother of Agur and Lemuel whose wise words are 
the fruit of her teaching (Prov. xxx, xxxi). These seven 
women seem typical of the new era which Christianity was 

166 



WOMAN'S WORK 167 

to inaugurate, when womanhood was to be associated with 
holy minstrelsy and teaching, with Christian government 
and counsel, with consecrated courage and intercession in 
critical emergencies, with adoring gifts to the King of 
Kings, and with the imperial power of home influence 
whereby to train a household of princely characters to 
wield the scepter of social life. 

Surely, among the most remarkable movements, guided 
by God's hand, in our times, has been this singular and 
steady forward march of Christian womanhood towards 
the front rank of consecrated service. While God was 
opening new doors and removing old barriers to heathen 
peoples, He was preparing new workers and agencies to 
enter the doors and occupy the accessible fields. The story 
of the organization of women, in boards of missions, 
especially in zenana work; and of their entrance upon 
every other form of Christian service, to promote total 
abstinence, social purity, systematic giving and unitecl 
prayer, to disseminate intelligence and educate a new gen- 
eration of givers and workers, — this is one of the greatest 
of the modern chapters in the new acts of the apostles. 
The importance and significance of this series of develop- 
ments, and the obvious leadership of a divine hand in 
them all, entitle them to a special and permanent memorial 
among the marked spiritual movements of our time. 

We must go back to the beginning. It is sixty-six 
years ago since David Abeel, returning from China, told 
the women of Britain about the women of the far East, 
who, shut up in zenanas, harems, seraglios, were inac- 
cessible to all holy influences, unless their own sex could 
be induced to undertake work in their behalf. That mov- 
ing, melting plea was the parent of zenana missions, 
which marvelously synchronize with the accession of this 
Christian Queen to the British throne ! At the very time 
when God was lifting to the seat of an empire that reaches 



168 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

round the world, a young Christian woman, He was re- 
vealing to woman throughout the world the throne of her 
predestined influence, and putting in her hands a hitherto 
undreamed of scepter of imperial power! The Vic- 
torian era is woman's era. When Victoria was crowned, 
the diadem was placed upon the head of her sex, and 
woman's true epoch began, as we behold it in our day. 
We can do no more than briefly trace the outlines in this 
sixty-year history. 

The project of carrying the Gospel to women in their 
oriental seclusion and exclusion, seemed at first the wild 
visionary scheme of unbalanced enthusiasts ; and wise men 
and even sagacious women shook their heads in doubt,, if 
not derision. How impracticable, nay, how impossible! 
It was like forcing gates of steel in walls of stone, to seek 
to get access to the harems of Turkey and the zenanas 
of India. But something must be done. The condition of 
womankind in the East was so destitute and desolate that 
it had long drawn toward the wives, mothers, daughters 
, of the Orient the attention and sympathy of the whole 
civilized world. And there seemed to be neither hope nor 
help for woman, unless it should come through woman 
herself. No activity or generosity in sending and support- 
ing male missionaries would solve the problem; for no 
man could without, risk to life enter these sealed doors 
even in the capacity of a physician. Such facts seemed 
to compel woman's ministry. God was saying to woman 
as from heaven : " Thou art come to the Kingdom for such 
a time as this ; " and to those who had ears to hear and 
heart to heed, there seemed no alternative. Christian 
women must undertake the work of carrying the Gospel 
within zenana gates. 

The facts are appalling. In India alone it is estimated 
that there are one hundred and forty millions of women 
and girls. These were found sunk in such depths of de- 



WOMAN'S WORK 169 

graded ignorance, that one-third of them could neither 
read nor write ; one-tenth of them were widows, and of 
these widows fourteen thousand were under four years 
of age, twenty-two thousand were under ten, and one 
hundred and seventy-five thousand under fourteen. 
Think of such a host of women, twelve million of girls 
under fourteen, and half of them wives ! and all of them 
absolutely unreached and unreachable by any existing in- 
fluence that could elevate, educate, or evangelize them! 
What words could fitly portray so low an estate for nearly 
half the population of oriental empires ! 

The work was undertaken, at first, by British women. 
Reason opposed, but faith proposed and disposed. It is 
an old familiar, pathetic story, how in the days of Rev. 
Dr. Thomas Smith, then of Rev. John Fordyce and Alex- 
ander Duff, the first systematic efforts were made to get 
access to the zenanas of India. * Then the deft needle of 
a missionary's wife, Mrs. Mullens, was used further to 
unlock the doors. A simple piece of embroidery, wrought 
by her skillful fingers, attracted the attention of the se- 
cluded inmates of one of these household prisons; they 
argued, that if a woman could do such work as that, 

* This history has been carefully outlined elsewhere (" Crisis of Missions," 
Chap. XIX, " New Acts of Apostles," Part II., Chap. 3) but we here rehearse 
the main facts. Rev. Dr. Thos. Smith, March 1840, urged on the Calcutta 
Missionary Observer, the question of zenana teaching. But it was fifteen 
years later before his sensible plans took such root as to have practical and 
lasting growth. Rev. Jno. Fordyce and others secured the services of two 
or three lady visitors, and got access to some native families. Then Mrs. 
Mullens, Mrs. Eliz. Sale, Miss Briton and others enlarged the work. But 
in 1851 the work had as yet no importance sufficient to give it any statistics. 
In 1871, twenty years after, 1,300 houses were found to be under visitation and 
there were about 2,000 pupils, and twenty years later, the homes found 
accessible had multiplied more than thirtyf old, to over 40,500. In 1896 the 
following are the figures for the work outside this field of India* 

Foreign and European female teachers 711 

Native teachers 3,661 

Day-schools 1,507 

Scholars 62,414 

See Missionary Review, April 1897, p. 273-279. 



i7o FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

other women might learn how., and so, with the cordial 
consent of the lord of the zenana, this Christian woman 
was welcomed within the veiled chamber, and encouraged 
to teach his wives the woman's art of embroidery; and, 
as she wrought on a pair of slippers the beautiful pat- 
tern, she was quietly working into the very fabric of their 
hearts and lives scarlet threads dyed in the blood, and 
golden threads shining with the glory of the Lamb. 

It is a poetic and pathetic fact, that, under the gentle 
touch of a woman's hand, the long-locked gates have been 
flung wide open, and the barriers of ages are no more! 
Christian women go, almost without restraint, sometimes 
with urgent entreaty, into the homes of women in Turkey, 
Syria, China, India, and the Orient generally. The girls 
are gathered by hundreds of thousands into Christian 
schools; and the increase in the number of female pupils 
has been so rapid, that it doubled in ten years between 
1876 and 1886, and multiplied much more rapidly in the 
next decade. As long ago as 1884, one hundred and sixty 
women missionaries had been enrolled in the work of 
that one London mission; pupils numbered thousands 
within the zenanas, and tens of thousands in their day- 
schools. Ten years later, Bible women entered the richest 
homes freely, and Hindu husbands actually clamored to 
have their wives and daughters taught. Fourteen years 
ago, the Church of England society alone had under visita- 
tion eighteen hundred zenanas with four thousand pupils ; 
and both visitors and schools have steadily grown in num- 
bers and influence. 

Thus suddenly the women of Christendom discovered a 
new world, with limitless possibilities of work for the 
Master. Leupolt, contemplating the fact that, not only to 
the houses of the lower classes of natives, but to the 
zenanas in cities like Benares, Lucknow, Agra, Delhi, 
Amritsi, Lahore, etc., European women with their native 



WOMAN'S WORK 171 

assistants were admitted freely, to teach the word of God, 
exclaimed : " If any one had hinted twenty-five years be- 
fore that this would be, I would have replied, ' All things 
are possible to God, but I do not expect such a glorious 
event in my day.' But what has God wrought ! more 
than we asked or thought, expected or prayed for! His 
name be praised." And, when Leupolt thus wrote, already 
to more than twelve hundred such seraglios the agents of 
the Female Normal School and Instruction Society had 
access ; and even this was many years ago, when the work 
was at its inception comparatively, and referred only to 
the success of one organization ! An intelligent Hindu 
says : " If these women reach the hearts of the women of 
our country, they will soon get at the heads of the men." 

It was about sixteen years since, that the Indian Educa- 
tion Commission officially reported to the government that 
the most successful efforts at woman's education, after 
leaving school, had been conducted by missionaries; that 
in every province of India, Christian women had devoted 
themselves to teaching in native homes ; and recommended 
grants for zenana work to be recognized as a proper 
charge on public funds, etc. Soon after, a Mohammedan 
paper of Lahore urged those who would propagate Islam, 
to see to it that zenana women were taught the Koran, 
lest by the Christian teaching that was making such in- 
roads the very foundations of Allah's empire should be 
demolished. 

Shaftesbury, at the jubilee of the Society for Promoting 
Female Education in the East, in 1884, said : " The time is 
at hand when you will see the great dimensions of the 
work you are now doing, not only in India but through- 
out the East. Great changes are in the future." His 
words were prophetic of what is already taking place. 
Ten years ago this society had missions not only in India 
and Ceylon, but in Japan, Persia, and Africa, etc. One 



172 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

instance may be cited as a representative example of how 
in individual cases this zenana movement proves far- 
reaching and mighty, namely this : at the girls' central 
school in the capital of Madagascar, Miss Bliss taught the 
young princess who at the crisis came to the throne in 
that great island. 

While God was thus opening the door of approach and 
access to Gentile women, behold Him moving Christian 
women to organize for the great Woman's Crusade of 
modern history! And so was written that new chapter 
of history which records the rapid growth of Women's 
Boards of Missions, marking the next grand epoch of 
woman's epiphany and activity. 

Much pains have been taken to trace the facts, the early 
records of which were destroyed by fire, and to correct 
the general misapprehension as to the origin of the parent 
society. Rev. L. A. Gould, in a letter to the writer, says : 
" The exact facts are as follows : Mrs. Ellen B. Mason, 
wife of Rev. Francis Mason, D.D., a Baptist missionary 
from Burmah, stopped in Calcutta on her way to America, 
and learned the story of Mrs. Mullens' zenana slippers. 
Mrs. Mason, with two ladies, still living, Mrs. J. D. Rich- 
ardson and Mrs. H. C. Gould, my mother, visited influen- 
tial families in Boston ; and the first society, consisting of 
nine ladies, whose names I have, was formed in Boston, 
November, i860, Miss M. V. Ball, President. Subse- 
quently, in 1 86 1, societies were formed in New York, 
Brooklyn, and Philadelphia; and the New York society, 
by reason of its strength, was allowed to become the gen- 
eral society. These facts are not vital, only advantageous 
for accuracy." 

Thus, then, was organized, forty years ago, in America, 
the Woman's Union Missionary Society, which, under the 
leadership of the loved and lamented Mrs. T. C. Doremus, 



WOMAN'S WORK 173 

became the pioneer society of America, with The Mission- 
ary Link as its organ. This was an undenominational so- 
ciety, and led the way, as the parent of the various de- 
nominational Women's Boards now found connected with 
all the great Christian bodies. Of all these societies the 
one originating cause was the inaccessibility of heathen 
women save to their own sex; and the one aim was to 
organize women, in cooperation with the existing for- 
eign missionary societies, for sending out and supporting 
unmarried women as missionaries and teachers to their 
neglected heathen sisters. 

The rallying cry, heard in Britain over sixty years ago, 
and loudly echoed in America about twenty years later, 
brought Christian women boldly to the front in all the 
leading denominations. Early in 1868, was formed in 
Boston the New England Women's Foreign Missionary 
Society, with Mrs. Albert Bowker for President, and Mrs. 
Homer Bartlett for Treasurer. The previous year the 
American Board had sent into the field ten single women, 
appropriating for this end $25,000. Christian women felt 
called of God to this special work, and the following were 
the dominant reasons : 

1. Women abroad were inaccessible except to women. 

2. Christian womanhood would naturally both prompt 
and help work for woman. 

3. Woman owes a special debt to Christ for what He 
has done to uplift her socially and domestically. 

4. Woman naturally sympathizes with her own sex, 
and can appreciate woman's degradation and elevation. 

5. Woman abroad needs the practical illustration of 
what the Gospel can do, and has done, for women. 

6. In all education woman is God's ordained pioneer. 
As wife, mother, sister, daughter, she is the heart of the 
home and sways its scepter. 



/ 



174 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

7. This work provides a legitimate sphere in which all 
that is best in woman can thus be amply exercised and 
developed. 

The results are correspondent with what might be ex- 
pected. Christian women became, for the first time in all 
history, thoroughly united in organized work for souls. 
Their interest in the spiritual uplifting of their own sex 
was quickened; larger means for supporting women as 
missionaries and teachers were forthcoming; intelligence 
was more widely spread, partly by cheap mission leaflets 
and booklets ; offerings were systematically gathered in 
small sums, like " Carey's weekly pennies " ; direct cor- 
respondence with women workers, stated meetings, for 
prayer, and hearing of news from the field — these were 
the results, which became in turn causes of new and larger 
results. 

The collections of the first month enabled this early 
New England society to assume the support of a mission- 
ary to South Africa. At the end of three months, three 
women became living links with the foreign field, Miss 
Edwards in Africa and Miss Andrews and Miss Parmelee 
in Turkey ; and ten native Bible women were to be main- 
tained by the society. By October 8th, 1868, at Norwich, 
Conn., this society was already the parent of auxiliaries 
everywhere forming, and changed its name to " The 
Women's Board of Missions." 

In the same month of the same year, a similar society 
was formed in the great West, " The Women's Board of 
Missions for the Interior," and the next year this new 
society assumed the support of Mrs. Tyler of the Madura 
mission, and Miss Dean of Oroomiah, and issued its quar- 
terly, Life and Light for Heathen Women. During its 
first year about $4,000 were gathered. 

So rapidly grew the women's societies, that in 1884 



WOMAN'S WORK 175 

there were twenty-two Women's Boards, representing 
twelve denominations, and an aggregate of about $1,000,- 
000 receipts ! In 1897, the total number of women's so- 
cieties had reached upwards of one hundred. 

One example of the rapid increase of gifts ought to be 
added to show the power of many little sums, systemat- 
ically gathered. One Board, the Presbyterian, that re- 
ported in 1 87 1 $7,000, reported $224,000 in 1886 — thirty- 
twofold increase in fifteen years ! And the increase still 
goes on. 

No wonder Thos. Chalmers should have declared that 
he had found in benevolent work, that one woman was 
equal to seven and a half men ! 

Zenana work was only one direction in which Christian 
women have organized for holy activity during this Vic- 
torian era — the first trumpet-blast that rallied this vast 
reserve force of the Lord's army. Then came the Women's 
Boards, both of Home and Foreign Missions. But since 
then, there are many and various forms of holy enterprise 
upon which the Christian sisterhood have entered. Four 
or five stand out conspicuous, tho far from exhausting the 
long list. 

The Women's Temperance Crusade is one of the most 
memorable for its desperate daring. Aroused by the cru- 
elties inflicted by strong drink, and hopeless of human in- 
tervention, Christian women in the United States took the 
kingdom of Satan by violence, and went into the drink- 
shops to protest with dram-sellers, knelt on the floors of 
bar-rooms, and with prayers and tears besought God to 
curse the drink traffic and stop its awful ravages. When 
turned into the street, they knelt on the pavements, in- 
terposing their bodies between the door of gin palaces and 
those who would enter. The haunts of the drunkard 
were turned into places of prayer, rum-sellers changed to 



176 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

evangelists, and sots into saints. The Women's Christian 
Temperance Union, baptized in tears and prayers and 
blood, has a holy martyr history. 

The Woman's League for Social Purity attempted to do 
with the brothel and all its accessories what the Temper- 
ance Crusade undertook with the drink-shop. Obscene 
books, prints, exhibitions, houses of ill-fame, the uses of 
the post for immoral purposes, and the perversion of law 
to impure ends, — these and other helpers and abettors of 
prostitution and corruption occupied their attention. It 
was a mighty movement, and has still an increasing mo- 
mentum, directed toward the purity of our homes, as its 
sister movement, toward their sobriety. It required great 
heroism and courage of conviction, for women to cast off 
the trammels of a mock modesty and a refined sensibility, 
call things by their right names, and in public as well as in 
private, before men as well as women, and sometimes in 
courts and legislatures, grapple with an evil that even men 
had found it difficult to discuss. But they have done it, 
and challenged universal admiration for their intrepid 
fidelity. 

The Young Women's Christian Association has done 
grand work for young women, as the Y. M. C. A. has 
for young men. It is making itself felt in all our great 
cities, in throwing a loving shelter about young girls who 
come to the great centers of population to find employ- 
ment and who have no proper home-life. These associa- 
tions have erected suitable buildings where young women 
find board, lodging, companionship, employment, libraries, 
prayer-meetings, Bible classes, and every aid to temporal 
and spiritual advancement. If there is any more beneficial 
institution of its sort in existence, we do not know of such; 
and the writer can speak with confidence and from personal 
knowledge of the immense benefit accruing, having him- 
self a daughter who is the secretary of one of these city 



WOMAN'S WORK 177 

organizations. Just now this work is expanding and be- 
coming a power in foreign lands, gathering native young 
women, as in India, into the embrace of a consecrated 
Christian sisterhood. 

Women's Medical MissionW ork is one of the latest born 
of the organized movements of women in Christian lands. 
To have women going forth into all parts of the world, 
not simply as nurses but as fully qualified physicians ; and 
commending themselves even to imperial governments as 
competent to practise medicine and surgery side by side 
with the most skillful male practitioners, is certainly a very 
marked advance. Here is especially a new feature of the 
zenana movement. Women penetrate the seclusion of ori- 
ental homes with the balm of Gilead in one hand and the 
balm of the apothecary in the other; they go to heal the 
body and to heal the soul, to preach and to cure; and in 
true apostolic fashion to commend themselves to the heart, 
by skill in ministering to the ills and ailments of the body. 
There is an eminent fitness in woman's medical ministry to 
woman, and upon it God is setting His seal and sanction. 

In the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, 
and the Student Volunteer Missionary Union, women are 
perhaps as prominent leaders, if not as numerous mem- 
bers, as men. But our object is to call attention mainly to 
organizations solely composed of and officered by women, 
and those which have been selected out of many, suffice to 
illustrate how. in every direction the female factor in the 
Church of Christ is making itself felt as never before in 
the various forms of Christian activity. There is not one 
department of service to Christ and a lost humanity, in 
which women's gentle hand is not found conspicuous, net 
only in association with men, but in independent methods 
of organized action. 

What the church and the world have gained hereby, it 
would be difficult to estimate. One example might be 



178 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

given out of many thousands as a typical instance. Some- 
what over forty years ago, Mrs. Murrilla B. Ingalls, 
widow of Rev. Lovell Ingalls, a missionary to Arakan, 
after a visit to America, returned to Burma, and went at 
once to Thongze, where she remained and had entire con- 
trol, without help from any male missionary, except a na- 
tive ordained preacher and a few other native assistants. 
Often alone, with marked capacity and sagacity she car- 
ried on the mission with conspicuous blessing. Without 
transgressing the limits of propriety, or assuming ecclesi- 
astical functions, she became a sort of acknowledged 
bishop of a vast diocese. In all that has to do with Chris- 
tian doctrine and church organization and administration, 
she taught both women and men. She chose and then 
trained native evangelists, overseeing the schools and dis- 
covering the aptitude in pupils for teachers, and then train- 
ing them for educational work. She maintained strict 
discipline, guided the church in appointing pastors, and 
then humbly trained pastors in Bible truth, homiletic 
studies, and pastoral theology. She established Zayat 
preaching, organized a circulating library, and distributed 
Bibles and tracts over a wide district. Seeing the great 
destitution about her, she went with her Bible women on 
tours into the country, and her tent became the resort of 
multitudes who sought instruction. She reminds us of an- 
other woman, who, being accused of " preaching " by those 
who were jealous of her influence, and defending her 
course as justifiable from New Testament examples, was 
asked, " Were you ever ordained? " " No," she answered, 
" but I was foreordained/' Mrs. Ingalls is a bright ex- 
ample of what woman has done and is doing in all lands, 
and those who would pursue the study of the theme have 
only to read the story of such heroic women as the three 
wives of Dr. Judson, the second Mrs. Carey, Mrs. Krapf, 
Mrs. Judith Grant, Fidelia Fiske, Eliza Agnew, Mrs. Mc- 



WOMAN'S WORK 179 

All, Mrs. Moffat and Mrs. Livingstone, Mary Whately, 
Matilda Rankin, Mary Graybell, Clara Cushman, Hannah 
Mullens, Rebecca Wakefield, Sarah B. Capron, Mary Will- 
iams, Dorothy Jones, Anna Hinderer, and a host of others 
who have adorned the annals of missions. And who needs 
to be told that the names of Florence Nightingale and 
Clara Barton are inseparable from the ministry to wounded 
and sick soldiers and victims of famine and persecution and 
pestilence the world over ? 

Surely, when God lifted a Christian woman to the Brit- 
ish throne He was saying to her whole sisterhood in all 
Christian lands, " Let woman appreciate her opportunity, 
for it is the golden age of her reign, and she holds a scepter 
that sways empires. Let her prove herself to be a power 
ordained of God to fulfil a holy mission ! " 



CHAPTER XIV 

RAMABAI AN© THE WOMEN OF INDIA * 

The most prominent figure among the women of the 
Orient in our day is Pundita Ramabai, whose work in 
India is becoming so well known, and awakening such 
deep interest the world over. 

The census of 1891 showed 280,000,000 people in India, 
with 600,000 more men than women, owing to the low 
status of woman and the murder of female infants. Those 
who are not starved to death or otherwise disposed of in 
infancy, find life so miserable that many become suicides. 
The men rank as " golden vessels," however defiled the 
vessel may be, but it is a crime to be a woman ; she is but 
an earthen vessel, and a very unclean one. Especially is 
a widow, despised, for her husband's death is supposed to 
be due to her sin. The suttee is, therefore, deemed a fit 
penalty. Cattle have had hospitals, but not until fifteen 
years ago was a woman treated with as much consideration 
as a cow. Everything about that animal is sacred, even 
to her dung, but now only where Christ has taught the 
new theology of womanhood is woman respected. Widows 
are plenty, for every fifth woman is a widow; and altho 
despised, they are considered good enough for servile 
work. When no longer able to serve, they are allowed to 
die like other beasts of burden. As the nightingale's eyes 
must be put out if it is expected to sing in its cage, educa- 



* This article, already incorporated in the " Miracles of Missions, 3d 
series, is here added to complete the survey of these movements of the half- 
century and especially the movements for woman's elevation.— A. T. P. 

180 



RAMABAI AND THE WOMEN OF INDIA 181 

tion is denied to woman, and the eyes of her understand- 
ing are blinded lest she rebel against her lot. Not one in 
fifty can read, not to say write. Volumes have been writ- 
ten upon woman in India, * for in no one country, per- 
haps, is woman so bound down by chains wrought of com- 
bined custom and law, caste and religion. Womanhood is 
crushed out because hope is abandoned by all those who 
enter woman's estate. Even the sacred books sanction this 
horrible degradation. According to these, she has no legal 
or social status, no rights which a man is bound to respect. 
She is not capable of any acts of devotion ; is to obey her 
husband, however immoral his commands, and worship 
him if she would have salvation. She is an incarnation of 
sin and lying, and can not be believed under oath. The re- 
sults of such a system of society are, of course, not only 
child marriage and polygamy, but infanticide, slavery, 
prostitution, and the suttee. 

CHILD WIVES AND WIDOWS 

The last census taken in the presidency of Madras 
throws a lurid light on the terrible evils of the accursed 
system of child marriage in this great eastern empire. It 
showed 23,938 girls under four years of age, and 142,606 
between the ages of five and nine married; 988 baby 
widows under four years of age, and 4,147 girl widows be- 
tween five and nine years of age. There are two cere- 
monies in connection with an Indian marriage. Should 
the bridegroom die between the first and second of these 
ceremonies, the little bride becomes a widow, doomed to 
lifelong wretchedness and ignominy. Many little girls are 
married to old men tottering on the verge of the grave, 



♦The following- authorities may be consulted: Bainbridge, "Round the 
World Tour ; " Woodside, " Woman in India; " Stewart, " Life and Work 
in India ; " Wilkins, " Daily Life and Work in India ; " Storrow, " Our Sisters 
in India; " " Wrongs of Indian Womanhood," The Bombay Guardian^ etc., 
etc. 



1 82 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

and this again aggravates the evil. In the Madras presi- 
dency alone are some 60,000 Brahman widows, widowed 
in childhood, and doomed for life to the coarse white cloak 
and shaven head of the woman who is cursed by the gods. 
The unhappy lot of Indian widows is partially described 
in the following native editorial extract quoted from the 
Arya Messenger. This paper devotes much time and 
thought to the glorification of everything indigenous, and 
its testimony regarding the sad lot of its womankind is, 
therefore, particularly valuable. Were a missionary to 
use the language of this extract, he would at once be ac- 
cused of mendacious exaggeration, or something equally 
terrible. The extract reads thus: 

There are at present out of 6,016,759 married girls between 
five and nine years of age, 174,000 widows in India. These un- 
fortunate creatures are condemned to a life of perpetual widow- 
hood, for no fault of their own. These infants, what could they 
have possibly done to deserve so cruel a fate? They could 
have absolutely no idea of the moment when they were be- 
trothed, and most of them could have no idea of the time when 
they were married. They had no hand in the choice of husbands 
for themselves, their parents bestowed them on whomsoever 
they chose, and now, before they have fairly learned to talk, 
they are husbandless, doomed never to know the joys of a home. 
It is impossible to imagine anything more heartless, anything more 
savage and barbarous than the treatment which has been accorded 
to these unhappy girls by their misguided parents. Why should 
they have been betrothed and wedded when mere infants, and on 
what grounds can it be justified that their future shall be dark 
and dreary — a succession of miseries and sufferings? No law, 
human or Divine, can justify such a thing, and since it is an 
outrage upon Divine teaching and upon man's own sense of jus- 
tice, it is but natural that we should suffer for it. And we do 
suffer for it in a thousand ways, and we know it. What can 
be more ridiculous, more monstrous than that while a decrepit, 
spent-out old man, with one foot in the grave, can marry a young 
girl at any time, a virgin, who is in the prime of life, who has 
not as yet lived in the world one-fifth the time the old man has, 



RAMABAI AND THE WOMEN OF INDIA 183 

should be absolutely denied the right of taking some young man 
as husband ! The father of a widow of eight or nine years old 
may marry again when he chooses, but the poor girl herself must 
never! This is a state of things which exists nowhere else 
under the sun. 

There is no real family life in India. There could not 
be when Hindu philosophy teaches that, " He is a fool who 
considers his wife his friend." A few extracts from a 
Hindu catechism give some idea of the basis for the ill- 
treatment of Indian women : 

What is the chief gate to hell? Woman. 
What is cruel ? The heart of a viper. 
What is more cruel? The heart of a woman. 
What is most cruel of all? The heart of a soulless, penni- 
less widow. 
What poison is that which appears like a nectar? Woman. 

The marriage of girls to Khandoba is a custom which, 
like sodomy, can not be treated in plain words, as it be- 
longs among the things of which it is " a shame to speak." 
Suffice it to say that it implies a devotement to a life of 
vice as a murli, and reminds one of the similar customs 
connected with the rites of Venus and Bacchus. Parents 
lend themselves to these nameless horrors, and additions to 
the Indian penal code have been directed to the mitiga- 
tion, if not abolition, of these enormities. 

THE STORY OF RAMABAI 

Ramabai is a middle-aged woman, with black hair; she 
is slightly deaf, and a quiet atmosphere of power invests 
her. She talks with intelligence, and is heard everywhere 
with profound interest — the more so as the facts of her 
life are known. 

This woman has a romantic history. Her mother was 
herself a child-bride, wedded to a widower at nine years 
of age^ and taken to a home nine hundred miles away, 



1 84 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

Ramabai learned many lessons from her mother's lips, 
who would not marry her in infancy, and so " throw her 
into the well of ignorance." Her father, who was an edu- 
cated Brahman priest, had her taught Sanskrit and trained 
her well. He lost all his property, and, after enduring fear- 
ful suffering with his wife and elder daughter, fell a vic- 
tim to the awful famine of twenty-five years ago — 1874-77. 
Everything of value was sold for bread, and then even 
the necessities of life had to yield before its extremities; 
and the day came when the last handful of coarse rice was 
gone, and death stared them in the face. They went into 
the forest to die there, and for eleven days and nights sub- 
sisted on water and leaves and wild dates i until the father, 
who wanted to drown himself in the sacred tank, died of 
fever, as also the mother and sister. The father's dying 
prayers for Ramabai were, indeed, addressed to the un- 
known God, but have been answered by the true God, who 
heard the supplications of a sincere but misguided parent. 
Then the brother and Ramabai found their way to Calcutta, 
where they were scarcely better off, being still half starved, 
and for four years longer endured scarcity. There this 
brother also died — a very strange preparation for the life- 
work to which God called Ramabai. When twenty-two 
years old, her parents being dead, in a period of famine, 
during which she suffered both for lack of food and cloth- 
ing, as well as shelter, she learned a lesson which prepared 
her to sympathize with others who suffered. Life's sor- 
rows and privations became a reality. 

Left thus alone, her beauty and culture won her the 
coveted title, saravasti, and attracted to her friends and ad- 
mirers. Finally she married a Bengali gentleman, and for 
about eighteen months was happy in her new home, a baby 
girl being given her. But her husband's death introduced 
a new experience of sorrow. The world was before her 
and her child, and two grave questions confronted her: 



RAMABAI AND THE WOMEN OF INDIA 185 

First, how shall I get a living? and second, what shall I 
do for others? 

Ramabai, being thus early left a widow, began to know 
the real horror of a Hindu widow's lot, and resolved to 
undertake, as her life mission, to relieve this misery and 
poverty. Her heart kindled with love for these 25,000,000 
child widows and deserted wives, who know no happiness ; 
who are often half starved, are doomed to perpetual wid- 
owhood, and to whom their departed husbands are prac- 
tically gods to be worshipped. 

At the age of twenty Ramabai went to England, where 
she heard the Voice that called Abraham to go out, not 
knowing whither, and like him she obeyed. There she 
was converted to Christ, and baptized in 1883. She taught 
Sanskrit in the ladies' college at Cheltenham, her purposes 
fos life meanwhile taking definite shape. 

About twelve years ago she visited America, where 
she found friends disposed to help her start her school for 
high-caste widows in Bombay. She began with two pu- 
pils, but, despite opposition and ridicule, she went on with 
her God-appointed mission, and now has over 400 pupils 
and a property worth $60,000, embracing a hundred acres, 
cultivated by them. About 225 girls have been brought 
to Christ, and many have been trained for useful work, 
happily married, or otherwise profitably employed. In 
nine years Pundita Ramabai received upward of $91,- 
000 for the work. For a time her attitude was neg- 
ative and neutral as regards Christianity, but her work is 
now distinctly evangelical and Christian. Love is its at- 
mosphere, and unselfish labor for those who are in need, 
as is shown by the opening of her doors lately to welcome 
300 famine orphans. Through help obtained in England 
and the United States she built at Poona a building, and 
opened a school called Sharada Sadan (Abode of Wis- 
dom). 



1 86 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

In 1896, hearing of the famine desolating the central 
provinces, she made arrangements for the fifty or more 
widows to be cared for at Poona, and went to the famine 
districts resolved to rescue at least 300 girls from death; 
and these became her own, under her control, to be brought 
up as she pleased. Within two years nearly one-third of 
this number had accepted Christ. These were placed on 
the farm at Kedgaum, about thirty-four miles from 
Poona. 

One must have lived in India and gone through a fam- 
ine experience to understand the facts. Government poor- 
houses and relief camps she found to be inadequate ; even 
where the bodies were sheltered and fed, the soul was in 
danger from the character of those who were employed as 
mukadams, managers, etc. She found young girls " kept " 
for immoral purposes in these government shelters where 
virtue was presumably also in shelter; and when the 
deputy commissioner was told of the facts, like Gallio, he 
" cared for none of these things." Ramabai says that 
young women had to sell their virtue to save themselves 
from starvation. British soldiers often oppose mission- 
ary labor because it breaks up this infernal traffic in virtue. 
Dr. Kate Bushnell and Mrs. Andrew exposed the doings 
of high military officers, and further exposures are feared 
where godly women have freedom to work. 

During the late famine, when Poona was abandoned, 
Ramabai was supporting 372 girls, of whom 337 were in 
Kedgaum, at the farm, while the rest were at different 
places. When this farm was bought, embracing 100 acres, 
the government would not allow dormitories to be put up. 
Ramabai's reply was, " I will build a barn for bullocks and 
grain." She went on and put up a large building, and by 
the time it was completed, she had permission to put girls 
in it instead of cattle. Thus she stored it with " grain for 



RAMABAI AND THE WOMEN OF INDIA 187 

the Lord." That " cattle-shed " became a shelter for 200 
famine widows, and later served as school-house, chapel, 
dormitory, etc. Temporary shelters were also erected and 
the new settlement was called Mukti (Salvation). 

The work at Mukti is constantly growing, and has the 
growing confidence of intelligent and Christian people. 
The new buildings now completed are already insufficient 
to accommodate the inmates, and new buildings will be 
put up as fast as the Lord sends means. The heart of this 
godly woman travails for souls, and she can not see the 
misery and poverty about her without yearning to relieve 
it. A few poor women, ruined by vice and terribly dis- 
eased, are housed for the time in separate chuppee huts, 
until a home for such can be provided. 

This home is not a place of idleness, but a hive of indus- 
try. Education for the mind, salvation for the soul, and 
occupation for the body is the threefold law ; washing and 
weaving, cooking and sweeping, growing grain and grind- 
ing it, flower culture and fruit raising — these are some of 
the industries in which the girls are trained, and which 
contribute toward their self-support. 

The teachers are exclusively Christian, and the settle- 
ment is a truly missionary center. Miss Abrams, who 
superintended the work in Ramabai's absence, gives her 
whole time to it, giving Bible instruction in the school, 
and supervising the village work. She had only to suggest 
to students a pledge like that of the student volunteers, 
and thirty-five at once offered to follow any leading of God 
into mission work. A score of neighboring villages are 
already accessible to the Gospel, and crowds gather around 
Miss Abrams and her Gospel women. 

The Holy Spirit works with Ramabai. The girls show 
real sorrow for sin, and hunger after salvation. Then 
when they are saved, they become witnesses, and in their 



1 88 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

own simple way tell of forgiveness and cleansing. In the 
hospital there are also frequent manifestations of God's 
healing power. 

When she set up her school in Poona, Ramabai made no 
efforts at proselyting the inmates but some five or six 
years ago twelve or thirteen of them, won to Christ by her 
unselfish love, renounced heathenism, and were baptized 
into Christ. Poona was greatly aroused by such an event, 
and for a time it seemed as tho the home itself would be 
reduced to a ruin. Ramabai called a public meeting, and 
undertook to explain why these widows had accepted 
Christ. The streets were thronged with people, and a 
crowd of young men filled the hall where she was to speak. 
Without a sign of anxiety, Ramabai stood up to address 
them. She spoke of the moral and spiritual slavery of the 
Hindus; how incapable they are of helping themselves, 
while they are asking for political freedom ; how unhappy 
their family life is, and especially how miserable is the 
lot of their women. Then, holding up the Marathi Bible 
she said : 

" I will read to you now what is the reason of all your misery, 
degradation, and helplessness; it is your separation from the 
living God ! " It was growing dark, and she asked one of the 
excited Hindu youths to bring a lamp that she might read. With- 
out a moment's hesitation he obeyed. After reading some pas- 
sages, she began to speak of the conversions of the widows, and 
then said : " Your view of my actions cannot influence me in 
the least, nor can your threatenings frighten me. You like to 
be slaves; I am free! Christ, the truth, has made me free." 
The excitement was tremendous, and the Brahmans only re- 
strained themselves with difficulty; but they heard her out to the 
end in dead silence, and allowed her to walk uninjured through 
their ranks to her home. 

The storm passed away, and the home remained undis- 
turbed — sheltering some sixty women, and training them 
for lives of usefulness. The Sharada Sadan is still a secu- 



RAMABAI AND THE WOMEN OF INDIA 189 

lar school, but Mukti is distinctly Christian, tho unsec- 
tarian. 

Pundita Ramabai has made two visits to this country. 
Once ten or eleven years ago, when she came to ask aid, 
and again, more recently, when she came to give account 
of her stewardship. During this decade of years, the 
Ramabai circles had sent her upward of 80,000 dollars. 
Fifty thousand dollars of this she had invested in property, 
free from debt, and over 350 high-caste widows have 
already enjoyed the benefits of her school, and are now fill- 
ing various places of self-support and service. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE MOVEMENT TOWARD CHURCH UNION 

Ever since the Reformation there have been going for- 
ward two exactly opposite movements, due to as many 
opposite tendencies— the movement toward sectarian divi- 
sion, and the movement toward denominational union. 

That two so opposite tendencies should be in operation 
at the same time seems, at first glance, contradictory and 
inexplicable; but a moment's careful consideration will 
show not only that it is a fact, but that there is a reason- 
able philosophy behind the fact. The Reformation broke 
the shackles of religious thought by releasing men from 
bondage to papal superstition and prelatical authority. It 
must be remembered that Rome holds that heresy is to be 
suppressed, not only in its expression, but in its concep- 
tion ; and hence the Inquisition dealt with parties suspected 
of heretical opinion, and sought, by the rack, to compel 
the disclosure of individual and secret sentiment. The 
immediate effect of the dawn of religious liberty was that 
men began to think freely, then to speak freely ; and thus 
they disclosed divergencies of opinion, which, being posi- 
tively held and expressed with impunity, led to controver- 
sies, and controversies to separations for opinion's sake, un- 
til even minor matters of differing opinion became the 
watchwords of ecclesiastical parties, and sects multiplied 
until we have now about as many nominally Christian 
bodies, large and small, as there are days in the year. 

This result was natural. The only way to keep men 
from such separations is to keep them in ignorance, and 

190 



MOVEMENT TOWARD CHURCH UNION 191 

in dependent slavery to authority. Liberty always leads to 
individualism and independence. Men can be kept on a 
level only by the despot's method — cutting off any head 
that rises above the common plane. The instant that a 
dead level of equality and subordination is no longer en- 
forced by violence done to manhood, differences begin to 
assert themselves and to become increasingly manifest and 
manifold. 

On the other hand, hearts are drawn together by a 
common faith and a common love and a common service. 
True disciples can not but feel that all believers are essen- 
tially one — one in agreement upon fundamentals — and it 
requires but little candid consideration to perceive that the 
things in which we agree are of infinitely more consequence 
than those upon which we differ. After all these wars in 
words, however bitter the controversial spirit may have 
been, when true believers get on their knees together, they 
pray the same theology, and the purest hymnology of all 
the ages shows no traces of rancorous strife over lesser 
matters of divergent opinion. Prayers and praises never 
betray sectarian shibboleths. 

And, as there is a common faith down beneath all de- 
nominational creeds so there is a common love down be- 
neath all external alienations and separations. Those who 
love the unseen God respond with affection toward His 
image wherever found in man. The unseen God appears 
manifested in the seen likeness of God in the disciple. 
There may be different tongues on earth, but Abba, Je- 
hovah, Hallelujah, are the same in all tongues, and tell 
of a common heavenly dialect. Whenever the Spirit 
works in common, common fruits appear, and the first of 
them all is love. 

Again, common service brings disciples together. They 
leave the atmosphere of denominational variance behind 
when they come face to face with the desperate needs of 



192 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

v/ a lost race. Where, as in India, woman has no rights, 
which a man is bound to respect, while everything about a 
cow is sacred, even to animal excrement, the differences 
that divide evangelical Christians at home seem ludicrously 
little. Where, as in Africa, mud from a river, molded into 
a rude resemblance to a human form, is set up for worship ; 
or a snake's poison fang, an elephant's tooth, or a bit of 
parchment, is looked upon as a charm more potent than 
prayer to the infinite God, missionaries forget their Calvin- 
ism and Arminianism, their differences in church polity 
and doctrinal standards, and come close to each other in the 
effort to lift men out of the awful slough of fetish wor- 
ship and animalism. * 

And so, at home, the more Christians know of each 
other, and the more frequently they meet for common wor- 
ship or in common work, the more they forget that, in any 
respect, they are not one. They misjudge each other while 
they see each other from a distance ; but, when they come 
nigh, each sees in the other the countenance of a friend, 
a brother, a sister. They feel ashamed of what has kept 
apart those who are redeemed by the same blood and in- 
dwelt by the same Spirit, and are on their way to the same 
home. 

Of late years, after denominational and sectarian diver- 
gencies had spent their force, and the centrifugal ten- 
dencies had so long and so sadly prevailed, the centripetal 
— the power of one faith, love, and work — began to be 
more manifest and to claim recognition. One of the first 
of these counter-movements was what is known as the 
Evangelical Alliance — a happy name to express an 
alliance whose basis is evangelical truth held by 
all alike. This movement is a little over fifty years 



* See also the " Declaration of Unity," issued by the Protestant mission- 
aries in China printed in the January number of the Missionary RevitWy 
1899, p. s*. 



MOVEMENT TOWARD CHURCH UNION 193 

old, having been organized in London in 1846. In 
its public meetings, brethren have met on a com- 
mon platform, uttered harmonious testimony, and 
evinced mutual sympathy ; and, in face of common perils, 
or the invasion of Christian privilege and right, have stood 
by each other in a united and effective remonstrance. It 
is to be lamented that in America the Evangelical Alliance 
is far less effective as an organization, in some respects, 
than in Britain, tho, under the lead of Dr. Josiah Strong, 
there were ten years of most efficient work done in one 
direction, namely, that of reaching the non-churchgoers 
in our great cities. In more recent years the free churches 
of Britain have been drawn closer in an annual church 
congress, which is now becoming a confederation. This 
latter is, perhaps, the most conspicuous form of church 
unity in our day, and, in some respects, the most promising, 
tho not perhaps without its difficulties and dangers. 

Those who have watched the signs of the times have 
noticed, with more than a passing interest, the develop- 
ment of this unifying tendency. For example, in 1890, 
representatives of various bodies met in England — min- 
isters and members of the Established Church and of the 
Congregational churches — and held a series of twelve con- 
ferences, seeking a platform on which they could agree, 
and which might serve as a doctrinal basis on which to 
unite and become one church. * Among those composing 



* We here condense an account of the Free Church Federation, from a 
recent English periodical :" In 1890, Dr. Guinness Rogers suggested the 
holding of a congress of all denominations. Wesleyans, Presbyterians, Bap- 
tists, Congregationalists, meeting on the same platform, not for an inter- 
change of compliments and courtesies, but for true Christian fellowship 
in devotional service, and for counsel on common Christian work, would 
be a striking illustration of a Catholic Church including various sections, 
each with its own form of development, and with its distinctive features of 
doctrine and ritual, but all one in Christ Jesus." 

Invitations were sent out to a first congress in Manchester, England, in 
i8q2. Two years later a second congress was held at Leeds, where a more 
formal organization of the movement was commenced, and by 1896 ten 
thousand churches, with a membership of a million, were represented. By 



194 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

the conference, were seven Episcopalians, including Canon 
Westcott and the dean of Worcester, and six Congrega- 
tional ministers, including Rev. Dr. Henry Allon, H*. R. 
Reynolds, president of Chestnut College, and Rev. Dr. J. P. 
Paton. 

The conference was able to agree upon a statement of 
the essential doctrines of Christianity, as revealed in the 
Bible ; the divine authority of the Scriptures, the Apostles' 
and Nicene creeds, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Atone- 
ment, the Resurrection, the need of saving faith in Christ, 
being held by all, universally accepted by Christians, and 
already expressed in terms unobjectionable to all evan- 
gelical denominations, as in the doctrinal basis of the 
Evangelical Alliance. But the main obstacles to a union of 
all the churches lie in the denominational peculiarities. The 
use of a liturgical service might be made optional ; but im- 
mersion, the form of church organization and government, 
the doctrine of priesthood, are matters on which such dif- 
ference of opinion and conviction exists, that little advance 
has been made toward reconciling or eliminating them. 

Here the English conference split in 1890. The Angli- 



the end of 1898 some five hundred local councils had been formed, divided 
amongst twenty-five district federations. 

The objects of the movement have been defined thus : (a) To facili- 
tate fraternal intercourse and cooperation among the Evangelical Free 
Churches, (b) To assist in the organization of local councils, (c) To en- 
courage devotional fellowship and mutual counsel concerning the spiritual 
life and religious activities of the churches, (d) To advocate the New 
Testament doctrine of the Church, and to defend the rights of the asso- 
ciated churches, (e) To promote the application of the law of Christ in 
every relation of human life. 

The methods adopted to attain these objects have been many and various; 
one of the most important being the holding of united missions. 

Another important phase of the work is the arranging for systematic visi- 
tation, with free distribution of good literature, and invitations to attend 
places of worship. This is greatly facilitated by dividing the neighborhood 
covered by the local council into " parishes," special maps having been 
prepared in many cases showing the streets allotted to each of the churches. 
The growth of Evangelical Protestantism, the increase of the social well- 
being of the people, and the deepening of the spiritual life of the churches 
have already been the result. 



MOVEMENT TOWARD CHURCH UNION 195 

cans held fast to the priestly order, to ordination by the lay- 
ing on of Episcopal hands, as qualifying to duly administer 
the sacraments " in all those things that of necessity are 
requisite to the same," and to a participation in the sacra- 
ments, so administered, as essential to membership in the 
holy Catholic Church. Congregatio'nalists and other be- 
lievers, outside of the Anglican and Roman churches, were 
not ready to accept such opinions or bow to such claims. 
We quote: 

" It is well to be frank. It is best to declare at the outset that 
we positively reject the priestly order of ministers, as contrary 
to Revelation and history. There was no such order in the 
Apostolic Church. It was one of the innovations which led to 
the formation of the papal hierarchy. The churches of the Ref- 
ormation with entire propriety, excluded every trace of hier- 
archical office and power from their organizations. From this 
the Church of England is the chief dissenting body. It adopted 
the hierarchy, man made, as it found it, simply cutting off the 
pope and his council. It, and not the Congregational or Presby- 
terian body, is the non-conforming church. The churches of the 
Reformation held, as they were taught by the New Testament, 
that the entire body of Christian believers constitutes ' a royal 
priesthood,' and that no minister is or can be a priest in any 
sense differing from the priesthood of believers. 

" It should be distinctly understood that the large majority of 
Christians conscientiously, decisively, and absolutely rejects the 
doctrine that a minister is a priest in any special sense, in a 
sense differing in any degree from the priesthood of every be- 
liever; that the necessity for Episcopal ordination is as distinctly 
and absolutely rejected by the same majority; that the depend- 
ence of the sacraments for efficacy on a priestly order is no 
less absolutely rejected. This rejection of a priestly order, and 
all it includes, is conscientious, and rests upon faith in the Scrip- 
tures. No union is possible between the majority of Christian 
denominations and the Episcopal Church, if it involves an ac- 
ceptance of a priestly order of clergymen. 

" Not a few question if it be wise to bring all Christians to- 
gether in one church organization. Would not such a body be ex- 
posed to mighty temptations, involving great perils? There is a 



196 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

great deal of old Adam left in the best of us. Position and power 
are very attractive. There are ambitious men in the Church, who 
are also good men, who seek for places of influence and control. 
Such an organization would have great political importance, and 
aspiring politicians, just as was the case with the Papal Church 
for many years, would strive to secure the support of the one 
great holy Catholic Church. Their schemes would be invented 
and applied with consummate skill, and the leaders of the Church 
would be exposed to temptations tremendous in power and per- 
sistence. Is it wise to enter upon such risks? " 

A federation of denominations is, however, another 
matter altogether, and seems desirable. Every desirable 
end that an organic union could secure, could be as well 
obtained, perhaps, through a federation of churches, with- 
out incurring many of the risks otherwise involved. 

The following basis of agreement was reached at this 
conference. It would be difficult to improve upon it, per- 
haps, as an acceptable ground for common agreement: 

The Christian Faith. 

I. In recognizing the Bible as of Divine authority, and as the 
sole ultimate test of doctrine in matters of faith, as is expressed 
in the sixth article of the Church of England. 

II. In accepting the general teaching of the Apostles' Creed 
and the Nicene Creed, including, of necessity, the doctrines of 
the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Atonement. 

III. In recognizing a substantial connection between the resur- 
rection body and the present " body of humiliation." 

IV. That saving faith in Christ is that self-surrender to Him 
which leads a man to believe what he teaches, and to do what 
He bids, so far as he has opportunities of knowledge. 

The Christian Morality. 

I. In the conviction that it is the duty of the Christian so- 
ciety to consider, in the light of the principles, motives, and 
promises of the faith, the problems of domestic, social, and na- 
tional morality, with a view to concerted action. 

II. That progressive sanctification is essential to the Christian 
life; so that without it neither professed faith, nor conversion, 



MOVEMENT TOWARD CHURCH UNION 197 

nor sacraments, nor worship, can avail for the salvation of the 
soul. 

Christian Discipline. 

I. That the divisions among Christians render the due admin- 
istration of discipline, in the case of those who openly deny the 
fundamental truths of Christianity, or offend against Christian 
morality, extremely difficult; and that greater caution should be 
used in admitting to the privileges of membership those who 
leave, or are expelled from, the Christian community to which 
they have belonged. 

II. That while it is most desirable that this caution should 
be exercised in all cases of members of one Christian society 
seeking admission into another, by careful inquiry being made, 
and adequate testimony being required, as to their Christian 
character, this is especially important in regard to those who 
desire to exercise the ministerial office. 

Christian Worship. 

I. That Congregationalists can accept and use the treasures 
of devotion — hymns, collects, liturgies, etc. — accumulated by the 
Church during the Christian ages; and many Nonconformists 
think that in certain circumstances it is desirable to do so. 

II. That Churchmen can accept the use of extempore prayer 
in public worship ; and many Churchmen think that in certain cir- 
cumstances it is desirable to do so. 

III. That rigid uniformity in public worship is undesirable, 
and that to enforce it by civil penalties is a mistake. 

The Christian Sacraments. 

That altho it is desirable that every one should seek to know 
the true doctrine of the sacraments, yet their efficacy does not de- 
pend upon such knowledge, but lies, on the one hand, in the due 
administration of the sacraments " in all those things that of 
necessity are requisite to the same," and, on the other, in the use 
of them with a true desire to fulfill the ordinance of Christ. 

The Christian Church and Ministry. 

I. 

1. That the Catholic Church is a society founded by Christ, 
the members of which are united in Him, and to each other, by 



198 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

spiritual ties, which are over and above those that attach to 
them simply as men. 

2. That these ties depend upon a special union with the Person 
of the One Mediator, and a special indwelling of the One Spirit. 

The Nonconformist members of the conference are unable to 
admit : 

1. That the reception of visible sacraments is essential, in 
ordinary cases, to the establishment of these ties. 

2. That through the reception of the visible sacraments these 
ties may subsist, tho not forever, in those who are not believing 
and living as Christian people should. 

Both agree: 

II. 

i. That Christ has established a perpetual ministry in the Cath- 
olic Church. 

2. That no one can rightly exercise this ministry unless he be 
ordained to it by Christ Himself. 

3. That there is a divinely appointed distinction of office in this 
ministry. 

The Nonconformist members of the conference are unable to 
admit : 

1. That there is a divinely appointed threefold distinction of 
orders in this ministry. 

2. That external ordination by the laying on of Episcopal hands 
is necessary for its rightful exercise. 

The objections to organic union, above stated, are not 
the only ones urged by those who doubt the wisdom or 
expediency of such union. There are those who are ex- 
ceedingly jealous of the simplicity of worship, and who 
fear the rapid encroachments of modern ritualism ; and they 
apprehend danger from the contagion and infection of 
closer contact with all this formalism and sacerdotalism. 
For example : Protestant clergy were indignant at the cele- 
bration at an Anglican church, at a Church Congress 
service, of what was practically high mass. On behalf of a 
number of members of the congress, Mr. Harry Miller 
sent a protest to Archdeacon Emery, the permanent secre- 
tary, mentioning among illegal practices introduced — a 



MOVEMENT TOWARD CHURCH UNION 199 

procession in the church with banners, crucifix, lighted 
candles, and thurifer; the use of chasuble, alb, etc., the 
bishop (of Argyll and the Isles) wearing miter and cope; 
the use of wafer bread ; the elevation of, and kneeling be- 
fore, the consecrated elements ; ceremonial mixing water 
witrrthe wine during service ; ceremonial lighting of twenty 
candles immediately before the prayers of consecration ; the 
frequent use of incense and the censing of the communion 
table, celebrant, choir, and congregation ; the use of 
sacring bells ; the celebrant standing with back to the peo- 
ple during the prayer of consecration, so as to hide the 
manual acts ; the use of " altar " cards ; procession with 
bishop to the pulpit, with lighted candles and crucifix, 
etc., etc. 

If church union means mingling of a radical Protestant 
sentiment and practice with such " rags of Romanism," 
there will be not a few " dissenters " from such union, and 
" absenters " from such services. 

A very conspicuous peril besetting all these modern ef- 
forts toward organic union, lies in the tendency to undue 
breadth of platform. Charity may only be another name 
for laxity. In the desire to make room for all disciples 
there is a subtle temptation to add another plank which ex- 
tends the basis a little beyond the strictly evangelical limits. 
Implied forbearance with individual peculiarities of teach- 
ing and practise may easily pass into express toleration of 
serious errors and unscriptural practises. Loose views of 
inspiration, Socinianism, Pelagianism, Justification by 
works, notions of the Holy Spirit which rob Him of all 
proper personality, and the various evasions of future ret- 
ribution, may all easily demand a recognition, at least the 
recognition of silence which is practical consent. Here we 
must all recognize a rock of risk of which disciples in 
drawing near to each other must steer clear. Practically 
this is a present risk in the movement toward unity in Brit- 



200 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

ain and causes many to withhold their presence and co- 
operation. 

The question naturally arises, how far may we safely 
go in reference to federating evangelical disciples in closer 
external bonds? To this inquiry we give such answers 
as we may, glad to have our readers suggest any modifica- 
tion. 

i. Hearty and formal recognition of the essential and 
vital truths of Christianity, as the common basis of all in- 
timate fellowship, such as the plenary inspiration of Scrip- 
ture, the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, His vicarious 
Atonement, Justification by faith, the personality and in- 
dwelling of the Spirit, the resurrection of the dead, and 
future judgment. 

2. Voluntary avoidance and suppression of all sectarian 
controversy whether with tongue or pen. If, in addition to 
this, there could be an interchange of pulpits, and the 
barriers which fence off the Lord's table could be broken 
down, so that there might be a recognition of all true 
preachers, and a fellowship of all true believers in the 
breaking of bread, some of the most conspicuous hin- 
drances to practical and visible unity would be removed. 

3. Devotional conferences and meetings for fellowship 
might be most helpfully multiplied. In Britain the external 
barriers to unity are very exclusive. The Anglican Church 
is an establishment, and the non-conformists are not only 
ecclesiastically but socially under the ban. The assump- 
tions of Anglican episcopacy seem to many the more mon- 
strous, because bolstered up by governmental patronage. 
And yet it is remarkable that the most conspicuous and 
effective unifying forces for bringing disciples into line 
are found in Britain. The annual Keswick conference 
takes for its motto, " All one in Christ Jesus ; " and, altho 
that movement originated with, and is still mainly sup- 
ported by, Anglicans, it is for all practical purposes one 



.MOVEMENT TOWARD CHURCH UNION 201 

body of evangelical believers. Presbyterians, like Dr. El- 
der Cumming and the late Mr. McGregor, Methodists like 
Gregory Mantle and Charles Inwood, Episcopalians, like 
Webb-Peploe and Evan H. Hopkins, Baptists, like F. B. 
Meyer — all are equally at home, there, and teach with 
equal acceptance and authority. Here is a union of be- 
lievers where charity does not degenerate into laxity. 
Besides Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Bap- 
tists, Congregationalists, Quakers, there are a few non- 
descripts; it might be difficult to define just Robert Wil- 
son's or J. Hudson Taylor's denominational position — so 
far do they seem above all these narrow landmarks. But, 
because they so conspicuously exhibit the fruits of the 
Spirit, they are leaders in the Keswick movement. But 
not one teacher, connected with this broad fellowship of 
disciples, is an unsound man in any of the great essen- 
tials to which we have already adverted. 

4. In no one respect is church unity so desirable as in 
mission fields and mission work. The foes of Christ, 
whatever their differences, stand together in their opposi- 
tion to the Christian faith. There is no break in their 
ranks. They mass their forces to break down and defeat 
all efforts at a world's evangelization and redemption. 
What a lamentable blunder, if not a crime, that Chris- 
tian disciples should show a divided front, and often a 
dissentient spirit, even in missionary operations ! 

This subject has never as yet been considered as it ought 
to be. After the Hawaiian islands had been wonderfully 
brought into the fellowship of Christian peoples, a new 
denomination entered the islands in October, 1862 — over 
forty-three years after the brig Thaddeus sailed from Bos- 
ton with the memorable seventeen representatives of the 
American board, and after the Presbyterians and Congre- 
gationalists of America had been for nearly half a century 
at work in evangelizing and Christianizing this people — 



202 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

Bishop Staley, with his two presbyters arriving as repre- 
sentatives of an English mission to be known as the " Re- 
formed Catholic." That movement has ever been regarded 
by unprejudiced observers as one of the most unseemly and 
intrusive violations of denominational comity in the history 
of missions. One has only to read Dr. Anderson's tem- 
perate treatment of the matter in his book on " The Ha- 
waiian Islands," to see the exact position of affairs. 

Here was a land, just lifted by Christian effort out 
of the slough of a barbarous paganism, and taking its 
place, — the first example in the history of modern mis- 
sions — as a newly converted nation in the family of 
Christian peoples. The whole unevangelized world, with 
its thousand millions of unsaved souls, was waiting for the 
Gospel. Was there not room enough for missionary effort 
without introducing a rival sect into a peaceful Christian 
community? The members of this mission came, not to 
introduce Christianity to ignorant and barbarous savages, 
but to inoculate denominational controversy upon a tree 
of God's own planting. They came to a people, taught 
Christianity in its simplest evangelical faith and forms, 
to inaugurate a new style of worship, encumbered with 
the conventionalities of the High Church. The Protes- 
tant clergy of Honolulu — embracing missionaries and 
others — extended a fraternal hand, and took early oppor- 
tunity to invite to a monthly union meeting for prayer, one 
of the newly arrived brethren, who, after consulting his 
bishop, made a reply which was like an apple of discord 
thrown into the circle of believers : 

"He (the bishop) strengthened my own opinion, viz: 
that it would be inconsistent in a clergyman of our church 
to attend a prayer meeting in a place of worship belonging 
to a denomination of Christians who do not regard episco- 
pacy of divine appointment." 

Here was the keynote of the new mission: a refusal to 



MOVEMENT TOWARD CHURCH UNION 203 

meet Christian brethren; even in a union prayer meeting, 
and this in face of a recently converted heathen people, 
suggesting to them irreconcilable differences between be- 
lievers, on points not affecting salvation. Moreover, as 
these newcomers held to baptismal regeneration, they 
thought it right, if not duty, to baptize infants wherever 
they could, without regard to existing relations of the 
parents to the Protestant churches or missionary pastors. 
Confirmation, by a bishop of the Holy Catholic Church, 
was taught as necessary for all true believers, and as the 
only proper qualification for " the blessed sacrament of the 
altar." 

The story of this new mission is a sad story and a stain 
on the history of modern missions. It introduced an ele- 
ment both of division and dissension never before known, 
and put a stumbling block before newly converted natives. 
The whole mission was a breach of the courtesy due from 
one Christian body to another, and above all, in the mission 
field. Here was, after over forty years of battle with 
paganism, an hour of conquest ; and just as those to whom 
the victory belonged were taking measures to secure the 
spoils of battle for the Lord of the whole Church, a small 
body of professed allies enter the field, carrying a new 
banner, and, declining practical fellowship with those 
whose self-sacrifice has won the day, undertake to rally the 
converts under their standard! When a like movement 
began, whose object was to send a bishop and six presby- 
ters to that crown of the London Missionary Society, 
Madagascar, it led to a great remonstrance in London, 
over which the Earl of Shaftesbury presided, uttering 
words which deserve to be pondered by every true dis- 
ciple.* 

We have no disposition to override the conscientious 
scruples of brethren, however inexplicable they may be to 



* See Anderson's Hawaiian Islands, 358-9. 



20 4 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

us. We assert for ourselves and accede to others fullest 
liberty to follow conviction. But the field is world-wide, 
and Christian unity should exhibit itself in Christian 
courtesy and comity. Where any body of disciples are 
already successfully at work, let other Christian bodies not 
intrude, unless there is room and need for other workers 
without interference or overlapping. To meddle with the 
splendid work of the United Presbyterians in the Valley 
of the Nile, the Baptists in the Karen country, the Congre- 
gationalists in Turkey, the Episcopalians in Tinnevelly, 
would be alike needless and harmful. And in entering 
new fields like Cuba and the Philippines, the Sudan and the 
Upper Kongo basin, can there not be amicable conference 
beforehand so as to divide up the territory and work side 
by side, instead of setting up rival missions in the same 
narrow district? 

While there is much ardent talk about unity here is a 
practical way of living out Christian charity and of ex- 
emplifying and exhibiting love's holy law. And if we 
may venture an individual opinion, one such example of 
the actual unity of love is worth far more for God's glory 
and man's good than a Church, organically one, whose 
unity is at the price of a concession of one fundamental 
truth, or is the cloak to cover internal alienation and strife. 
So far as we hold the same vital truth we are one ; so far as 
we work together without friction, our unity reaches its 
highest practical result. 



CHAPTER XVI 

ORGANIZATIONS OF CHRISTIAN YOUNG PEOPLE 

Human progress is neither rapid nor regular, potent 
nor permanent for good, when it does not, in some way, 
educate and elevate the youth of the race. The salt that 
heals the waters must be cast in the springs where the rills 
rise and whence the rivers flow. 

Childhood is a mirror, catching and reflecting the im- 
ages of whatever surrounds it — a reflector as sensitive to 
impression and injury as the metallic mirrors of the an- 
cients. It would be as irrational carelessly to spray water, 
or, worse still, a corrosive acid, on a polished steel surface, 
expecting to efface the rust which no scouring will remove, 
as to expose childhood to needless contact with evil, and 
expect to find no lasting injury left upon the delicate sus- 
ceptible nature. Youth is the time for making deep and 
wholesome impressions, as well as for guarding character 
from injury ! What a golden age of opportunity for 
teaching — for engrafting lessons from that best of books, 
that unique child's book — the Bible ! The German prov- 
erb quaintly says that " what Johnnie does not learn, John 
never learns." The mind of youth " receives like wax, 
but retains like marble." 

The youth of a country should be made familiar with 
the highest, noblest ideals, to inspire what Schopenhauer 
would call the will to live, and what Nietzsche would call 
the will to be a power. To will to live unto God, and to 
be a power for God and good, is the mainspring of a great, 
grand, heroic soul. We can excuse an excess of zeal and 

205 



206 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

jealousy for God, but not vicious excesses or even apathy 
toward goodness. Better a violent torrent than a stagnant 
pool, for the torrent, once controlled, is made a force for 
good, but a pool is always and only a breeder of poisonous 
malaria. David Brainerd was expelled from college for 
telling a tutor that he had no more grace than the chair 
he sat in, but the impetuous Brainerd became one of 
the saintliest missionary heroes of his country. It 
is obvious that, without some work of God, especially 
among the young, we should not have had the existing 
state of intelligence and earnestness in any departments 
of service to God. 

A recent writer* says : " With reluctance and sor- 
row it must be confessed that the majority of Ox- 
ford and Cambridge undergraduates are without, 
or profess to be without, any religious beliefs at all. 
There are, of course, many exceptions. Exceptions, how- 
ever, they remain ; certainly the greater number are Gallios 
so far as the Church is concerned." Do these two facts — 
that modern university life is so largely tinctured with 
German rationalism, and that so many skeptics and ag- 
nostics are issuing from university halls — stand related as 
cause and effect? If so, then the influence of German 
thought on our educational life is deplorable. But, bless 
God, there have been educators that have been men of 
faith, and they have raised up children of faith, a faith 
larger, more intelligent, and more manly than that which 
was before it. The Scudders, Dwights, Hodges, Uphams, 
Waylands, Judsons, Osgoods, Stevensons, Spurgeons, 
Cairns, Flints, Wattses, Storrs, Christliebs, Candlishes, 
Bernards, Liddons, have not been headmasters of schools 
of sickly skepticism. " We correctly test the soundness 
of a system of thought by its unforced tendencies in the 



*The Nineteenth Century, October, 1895, " The Religion of Undergrad- 
uates," 



ORGANIZATIONS OF YOUNG PEOPLE 207 

minds of studious young men, for a teacher is better known 
by the beliefs and lives of his pupils than by the manner of 
man that he himself seems to be, A tree is known by its 
fruits." 

Family life also, before the public-school and college 
touch the young man or woman, must look well to the 
child-life and its development. It has been well said that 
the feeling with which one administers punishment will 
generally excite in the child a corresponding experience. 
If the parent be moved by anger, anger will be excited ; if, 
by affection and sorrow, the child will respond in sorrowful 
feelings ; if by moral convictions, the child's conscience will 
answer back again. In the household, first impressions 
for good or evil are received. The absence of discipline 
is criminal, for it implies an unformed character; but the 
spirit in which discipline is admonished may go far to 
determine the benefit resulting. 

And woe be to the church that has no warm bosom for 
the young! The statistics of conversion have frequently 
been gathered, and these are the approximate results as 
taken from one careful report. Out of a thousand Chris- 
tian people, the following is the classification as to the age 
at which they were converted : 



20 years and under. . 
Over 20 and up to 30 
Over 30 and up to 40 
Over 40 and up to 50 
Over 50 and up to 60 
Over 60 and up to 70 
Over 70 and up to 75 



695 
208 

69 

19 

6 

2 

1 



These figures show that only 305 of the 1,000 were con- 
verted after the age of 20; only 97 after the age of 30; 
only 28 after the age of 40 ; only 9 after the age of 50, and 
only 3 after the age of 60. According to this writer's 
knowledge, the earliest age at which conversion occurred 



208 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

was four years, as was the case with a minister well known 
over all the world, and the most advanced age at which 
conversion took place was 75, and the longest time spent 
in the Christian life was 80 years. The average age 
at conversion is 19 1-2 in this list of a thousand. What 
an argument against procrastination and in favor of re- 
membering the Creator in the days of youth. 

In view of such facts and considerations, it is quite in- 
conceivable that God could be controlling the stupendous 
movements of modern history, and yet no arousing and 
arising of the young men and women of Christian lands 
be included in His plan. 

What do we find ? A development and organization of 
the forces of youth, never before known or imagined in 
history. It seems as tho God, foreseeing the last great 
Armageddon at hand, had brought forward His reserves 
— the immense battalion of young men and women, never 
before massed on the battlefield of the ages ! And this 
amazing development has mostly been the product of the 
last fifty years. 

Some of the facts, however familiar, demand a re- 
hearsal as a part of this striking history. 

We begin with the Young Aden's Christian Asso- 
ciation, whose records are fresh in mind from the 
recent Jubilee celebration in 1894. Sir George Williams, 
its founder and father, still lives, and tells the simple story 
of its humble beginning. A little more than fifty years 
ago, he, a young man of about twenty-one, spoke to an- 
other young man about his soul; this conversation led to 
othe'r like approaches ; then to a meeting for mutual edifi- 
cation, Bible study, and united prayer ; then to an organiza- 
tion of young men for these purposes in what is now the 
great mercantile house of Hitchcock, Williams & Co., in 
London ; then to similar organization in neighboring mer- 
cantile houses, and finally to a meeting of their representa- 



ORGANIZATIONS OF YOUNG PEOPLE 209 

tives, and the formation of a Y. M. C. A. for the city* of 
London. A thought so manifestly of God could not be 
hid or confined within narrow bounds. It proved con- 
tagious — it spread across the sea, it became the seed 
thought of such associations over all the English-speaking 
world; it reached out to the continent of Europe; it sent 
out its branches round the globe, until now the aggregate 
membership of the Y. M. C. A. is numbered by millions, 
and there is not a prominent land or nation, Christian or 
heathen, which has not a representative organization of 
young men belonging to the world-wide fellowship. Its 
conventions have passed city, state, and national limits, 
and have become international and cosmopolitan. 

Here is an astounding modern development. Never 
before had young men been thus brought to the front, 
united in Bible study and Christian work, magnifying the 
essentials of Christian faith, fraternizing in forgetfulness 
of lesser divergencies, and aiming specifically at the rec- 
lamation of young men. 

To this organization may be directly traced the origin 
of the Young Women's Christian Association, the United 
States Christian Commission, so active in the late war for 
American unity, and especially that college association 
work which has already given us the Student Volunteer 
Missionary Union, and started the new crusade in mis- 
sions. All this and more within the half century ! Well 
may we exclaim, What hath God wrought ! 

This Student Volunteer movement, which, beginning at 
Cambridge in 1885 and at Mt. Hermon, Mass., in 1886, 
is now but about fifteen years old, has enrolled 
probably nearly 10,000 young men and women in its 
ranks from the beginning until now, and has sent nearly 
one-tenth of its recruits to the field. In 1897, the member- 
ship in Great Britain had reached about 1,400 and be- 
tween 300 and 400 were already engaged in mission work. 



210 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

A memorial from this body of students was then before the 
missionary secretaries and the ministers of Christ in Brit- 
ain, praying them to unite in supplication to God that the 
lack of gifts might not be suffered to hinder their going 
forth to the field! Surely this was a new development, 
when young men and women, offering for missionary 
service, entreated the church not to embarrass their work 
for the lost race of man by withholding money from the 
treasuries of God. 

Rapid as has been the spread of the Y. M. C. A. the 
Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor outruns it. 
This latest form of the great organizations of youth out- 
strips all competitors in the race and encircles the world. 

Let Rev. F. E. Clark, D. D., the President of the United 
Society, tell his own story of the origin of this movement, 
now twenty years old. 

In the winter of 1880-81 a revival spirit visited the Williston 
Church, of Portland, Maine, and many young people gave their 
hearts to God. The pastor and older church members, naturally 
anxious concerning these young disciples, felt that great wisdom 
and care were necessary to keep them true to the Savior during the 
first critical years of their discipleship. The problem weighed 
heavily upon their minds, for they felt that neither the Sunday 
School, nor the church prayer-meeting, nor the young people's 
prayer-meeting, tho all well-sustained, admirable in their way, 
were sufficient to hold and mold the Christian character of these 
young converts. There was a gap between conversion and church 
membership to be filled, and all these young souls were to be 
trained and set at work. How should these things be done? 
These were the pressing problems. After much prayer and 
thought, the pastor invited the recent converts and young church 
members to his house, February 2, 1881, and after an hour of 
social intercourse, presented a constitution, previously drawn 
up, of the " Williston Young People's Society of Christian En- 
deavor." This is essentially the same as that adopted by the 
great majority of Societies of Christian Endeavor at the present 
day. 



ORGANIZATIONS OF YOUNG PEOPLE 211 

Some three years later, at the request of one of the national 
conventions, with the aid of Rev. S. W. Adriance, the originator re- 
vised the constitution and framed the by-laws, adding various 
committees as they now appear in the " Model Constitution." 
But the essential features of the work were in the first constitu- 
tion : the definition of the object, the two classes of members, the 
" prayer-meeting pledge " (the most important part of the con- 
stitution), the consecration or experience meeting, the roll-call, 
the provision for dropping members, and the three main com- 
mittees, are provisions which are all found in the first constitu- 
tion. 

Thus the Society of Christian Endeavor, born of a revival, 
was the outcome of a real, felt necessity of training and guiding 
aright the young Christians who might otherwise stray away. It 
was a mere experiment, in the first place, and little credit is due 
to the originator, except for an effort to train his own young 
people in the Christian life, an effort always made by every true 
pastor. To his delight, and somewhat also to his surprise, nearly 
all the young people who assembled at his house, on the 2d of 
February, signed the constitution containing the stringent prayer- 
meeting clause, and they lived up to it. The young people's 
meeting took a fresh start; the spiritual life of the members was 
intensified; their activities were very greatly enlarged; and, so 
far as they were concerned, the problem of leading them to con- 
fess Christ with their lips, of setting them at work and keeping 
them at work, seemed to be solved. When that pastor also found 
that in many other churches the same efforts accomplished the 
same results, he began to feel that the hand of the Lord was in it. 
The first knowledge of this experiment given to the world was 
contained in an article published in the Congregationalist, of 
Boston, in August, 1881, entitled " How One Church Cares for 
its Young People." This article, and others which followed it, 
at once brought letters from pastors and Christian workers in all 
parts of the country. First they came singly, then in pairs, and 
then in scores, almost every day, and they have kept coming, in 
constantly increasing numbers, ever since. One of the first pas- 
tors to introduce this system of Christian nurture among his 
young people was Rev. C. A. Dickinson, then pastor of the Sec- 
ond Parish Church of Portland, and no small share of the success 
of the movement has been due ever to his wisdom and counsel. 
The first society in Massachusetts was established in Newbury- 



212 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

port, Mass., by Rev. C. P. Mills, in the same year that the move- 
ment originated. He has also ever since been one of the staunch 
friends of the cause; while another gentleman, who soon threw 
himself into the movement with characteristic energy, was Rev. 
James L. Hill, then of Lynn. The first President of the United 
Society, Mr. W. J. Van Patten, of Burlington, Vt, was one of 
the first to recognize the potency of the movement. The first 
man who signed the constitution, at his pastor's house, on that 
winter evening in 1881, was Mr. W. H. Pennell, teacher in the 
Williston Sunday-school of a large class of young men. He took 
this step, perhaps, as much to help his boys as for any other rea- 
son. The national convention honored his early devotion to the 
work by choosing him for three successive years its President. 

So far as careful search reveals, the distinctive features of the 
Christian Endeavor Movement, the strict prayer-meeting pledge, 
the consecration meeting, the roll-call, the variety of committee 
work, and the duties of these committees, are characteristic of 
this organization alone. 

Thus, at first, the Society of Christian Endeavor grew appar- 
ently as it were by chance. Wherever one of the winged seeds of 
information was wafted, it usually " struck " and took root, and a 
little Christian Endeavor plant was the result; or, as some one 
wittily expressed it, " The Society was contagious, like the 
measles; if one church had it, the church next to it was pretty 
sure to catch it also." 

For some years little was done in a systematic or organized way 
to establish societies. One of the first developments of the new 
work was naturally in the line of annual conventions. Those in- 
terested were not content to work out the problem for themselves, 
they must come together and tell each other what great things 
the Lord had done for them. The first of these conferences was 
held June 2d, 1882, in the Williston Church, Portland, Maine. 
But six societies were recorded then. In these were 481 mem- 
bers, the Williston Society leading off with 168. 

The Second Annual Conference was held in Portland, June 7, 
1883. A large growth over the preceding year was noted, tho 
statistics were obtained from only fifty-three societies with 2,630 
members. Of these fifty-three societies the report says five were 
organized in 1881, twenty-one in 1882, and twenty-seven in the 
first five months of 1883, showing what an impetus to the work 
was given by the little convention of the year before. Seventeen 



ORGANIZATIONS OF YOUNG PEOPLE 213 

Of these societies* were found in Maine* eleven in Massachusetts, 
forty-one in all New England; while of the other twelve, five 
were in New York, and the rest scattered throughout the West, 
a very large one being found in Oakland, Cal. After this conven- 
tion the society grew rapidly and steadily, but did not call an- 
other national convention until October 22, 1884, when it convened 
in Lowell. This was a two days' session, and a large, enthusi- 
astic meeting. 

By the time the national convention of 1885 met, July 9th and 
10th, at Ocean Park, Maine, the society had grown to embrace 
253 similar societies, with 14,892 members in all parts of the 
country. They had begun to be reported in foreign lands also, 
even in Foochow, Honolulu, and other mission fields. From 
this convention the work received a marvellous impulse, and 
everywhere the churches began to establish societies. In 1887, 
at the Saratoga convention, Dr. Clark was chosen President of 
the United Society, and editor of Christian Endeavor literature; 
he, in the following autumn, resigning the pastorate of Phillips 
Church, Boston, to accept the position. 

Unions existed, by the year 1888, in nearly all the States of 
the Union, and local unions in hundreds of places ; and under the 
blessing of God, the one society of 1881 has grown to the myr- 
iads of the present time, with their hundreds of thousands of 
members in America, and many added thousands in Great Britain 
and all missionary lands. 

In his letter of acceptance the President of the United Society 
formulated certain principles which he presented to the societies 
as conditions on which he accepted their call. These principles, 
adopted by many influential State conventions and local unions, 
may fairly be considered the platform on which the society 
stands, and are therefore here embodied : 

Platform of Principles. 

" 1st. The Society of Christian Endeavor is not, and is not to 
be, an organization independent of the church. It is the church 
at work for and with the young, and the young people at work 
for and with the church. In all that we do and say let us bear 
this in mind, and seek for the fullest cooperation of pastors and 
church officers and members in carrying on our work. The 
Society of Christian Endeavor can always afford to wait rather 
than force itself upon an unwilling church. 

"2nd. Since the societies exist in every evangelical denom- 



214 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

ination, the basis of the union of the societies is one of common 
loyalty to Christ, common methods of service for Him, and 
mutual Christian affection, rather than a doctrinal and ecclesias- 
tical basis. In such a union all evangelical Christians can unite 
without repudiating or being disloyal to any denominational cus- 
tom or tenet. 

" 3d. The purely religious features of the organization shall 
always be paramount. The Society of Christian Endeavor cen- 
ters about the prayer-meeting. The strict ' prayer-meeting 
pledge,' honestly interpreted, as experience has proved, is es- 
sential to the continued success of a Society of Christian En- 
deavor. 

" 4th. The Society of Christian Endeavor sympathizes with 
temperance and all true moral reforms, with wise philanthropic 
measures, and especially with missions at home and abroad ; yet 
it is not to be used as a convenience by any organization to 
further other ends than its own. 

" 5th. The finances of the Society shall be managed econom- 
ically, in acordance with the past policy of the Board of Trus- 
tees, and the raising of funds to support a large number of paid 
agents or Christian Endeavor missionaries, either in connection 
with the United Society or the State Unions, is not contemplated. 
In winning our way, we can best depend in the future, as in the 
past, upon the abundant dissemination of our literature, and 
on the voluntary and freely given labors of our friends, rather 
than upon the paid services of local agents. 

" The expenses of the central office will be largely for the pub- 
lication of literature and for the expenses of our General Sec- 
retary in the field. In raising very large sums, and employing 
many agents for whose work the United Society will be re- 
sponsible, and yet which it cannot to any great extent control, 
we shall run the risk of losing the sympathy of the churches. 
There is little danger that the society will not grow with suf- 
ficient rapidity, if every member does his best to make known 
our principles. Let it be our chief concern that our growth 
shall be as strong and substantial as it is rapid. In all State 
and local work the society can best rely upon the zeal and gen- 
erosity of its friends, hundreds of whom, both laymen and minis- 
ters, are willing freely to lend their aid to our cause. 

" 6th. The State and local unions and the individual societies 
and members will heartily uphold the United Society, its officers 



ORGANIZATIONS OF YOUNG PEOPLE 215 

and trustees, with their sympathies and prayers (and their ma- 
terial support so far as necessary), and hampering and destructive 
criticism of well-meant efforts are not deemed accordant with 
Christian Endeavor principles." 

That this historic review should bring the story of this 
remarkable movement down to present date, we add a few 
brief items. 

In 1884, the first Junior Endeavor Society was formed. 
In 1888, Dr. Clark's journey to England greatly stimu- 
lated the progress of Christian Endeavor there. "Christian 
Endeavor Day," the society's anniversary, first became a 
fixture during this year. In 1892, the convention was held 
in New York City, and attended by 35,000, with a large 
representation from foreign lands, Hindus, Chinese, and 
native Africans being among the speakers. Within a few 
weeks after this convention, Dr. Clark, with his wife and 
son, set out on a round-the-world journey, both to organ- 
ize the work, and to study the conditions to which the 
Endeavor Society must adapt itself, and its capacity and 
adaptability to them. This journey covered nearly 40,000 
miles. Over 350 addresses were made by Dr. and Mrs. 
Clark before aggregate audiences of 100,000. Twelve na- 
tions were visited, and, through interpreters, addresses 
were made in upwards of twenty different tongues. This 
journey was conspicuous, especially for its incidental con- 
nection with the foreign mission interest, which it natu- 
rally served to create or quicken. It emphasized fellow- 
ship among the nations, and the brotherhood of the race 
in sin, need, and redemption, and ever since then the 
Christian Endeavor Society has been linked with the 
world-field in sympathy, prayer, and giving. At Boston, 
in 1895, 56,000 delegates registered, and about 650,000 
attended the 825 different meetings of the convention. 
Thirteen different countries or peoples of the world, from 
England to Japan, and Alaska to Africa, were represented 



2i6 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

and a World's Christian Endeavor Union formed, and a 
" prayer chain " now merged into the " quiet hour." 

On Jan. i, 1900, the following is the official enrollment, 
worth preserving and comparing with the records of nine- 
teen years before: 

The total number of societies is 48,305, of which 7,172 
are in foreign lands, and a total membership of 2,800,000. 

Surely God has some great mission for this vast host of 
united young men and women. If we might venture to 
suggest to this great army of Christian Endeavorers seven 
grand things to be kept in the very foreground as secrets 
of success, we should unhesitatingly say : 

1 . First of all, Set the Lord ahvays before you. All life 
of holiness or power absolutely depends on the supremacy 
of God in the character and conduct — a real elevation of 
Him to the first place. Matt, vi, 33. All else is idolatry. 

2. Beware of pride of numbers. Power is not depend- 
ent on multitude or even organization. God often works 
mightily by the few, who do not forget individual duty and 
responsibility, and depend on the Holy Spirit. 

3. Guard the habit of closet prayer. Matt, vi, 6. 
Nothing else so determines the true character as the vision 
of God in the secret place (Numbers vii, 89) and in His 
Word. 

4. Regard yourselves as stewards of God, in trust with 
time, talents, money, and opportunity. Use all for him. 
Aim at a Scriptural standard of giving. 2 Cor. viii, 9. 

5. Abide in your calling with God. Every honest and 
honorable work is a divine calling, a sphere of Christian 
Endeavor. Take God as your partner. 1 Cor. vii, 20, 24. 

6. Lose your own will in the will of God. Ps. xl, 8. 
This is the soul of all true Christian Endeavor. Be con- 
tent to be simply His instruments. 

7. Serve your own generation by the will of God. Acts 



ORGANIZATIONS OF YOUNG PEOPLE 217 

xiii, 36. Wherever you are, be a missionary, and set be- 
fore you to do your utmost to bring the Gospel into con- 
tact with every human soul. 



CHAPTER XVII 

WORLD-WIDE UPRISING OF CHRISTIAN STUDENTS 

We have already noticed the rapidity of movement, no- 
ticeable in modern civilization, which invades the realm of 
mind as well as of matter. Every enterprise seems to go 
on wheels, or if steam or electricity were harnessed to it. 
There is something abnormal in the tremendous pace at 
which men are moving. Haste is waste. Hurry implies 
worry. There is risk of losing deliberation; of doing 
things precipitately, and superficially ; the calm of God can 
not be known in the excitement inseparable from such 
driving energy. A swift-sailing steamer, plowing through 
the waves at twenty-five knots an hour, creates a commo- 
tion in air and sea as it goes — it makes a storm if it meets 
none. 

One modern development has outrun almost any other, 
and yet so real has been its progress, that we marvel 
whether its apparent sagacity and success are not due to 
a special divine supervision, and its momentum, to Him 
to whom one day is as a thousand years. We re- 
fer to the remarkable onward and upward move- 
ment of the Christian young men of our higher educational 
institutions, the advance of which has been so rapid and 
yet so regular, so swift and yet so sure, so sudden and yet 
so permanent ; and, while under the guidance of the young, 
so exhibiting the wisdom associated with age and ex- 
perience, that we are compelled to look upon it as a 
spiritual movement — a marshaling of human forces under 
divine generalship; and to look behind it to the Divine 

218 



UPRISING OF CHRISTIAN STUDENTS 219 

force that alone can account for much that is taking place 
before our eyes. 

In this uprising of Christian students several distinct 
stages are noticeable : First of all, the introduction of the 
Young Men's Christian Association into the universities 
and colleges of Christian lands ; then the organization of 
these associations into a national and international alliance ; 
then the extension of such associations in the higher educa- 
tional centers of foreign and heathen lands. Simultane- 
ously with these came the era of conventions, summer 
schools, etc., bringing these young men together, and ce- 
menting the bonds of personal fellowship. Then The Stu- 
dent Volunteer Movement, appearing in the Cam- 
bridge Band of 1885 and the Mt. Hermon Band of 1886, 
and exerting immense influence in the direction of the for- 
eign field. Then followed the grand scheme of cooperation 
— whereby the Christian students in mission countries are 
to act as a home missionary contingent, for the uplifting 
of their own countrymen, under the lead, or with the help, 
of Christian students from America and Europe.* And 
now comes the last of these great strides — the " World's 
Student Christian Federation." f 

As the first Y. M. C. A. was organized in 1844, this 
whole history reaches over only about a half century ; and 
it may be doubted whether another movement so varied, 
vast, far reaching, and important, has marked any half-cen- 
tury of history before. 

To look carefully at the latest feature of this great en- 
terprise — the federating of the young men of the world 
into one great organization, and marshaling them under 
the Banner of the Cross, will be to survey the whole move- 
ment from its loftiest summit. 

In August, 1895, on the shores of Lake Wettern, 



* " New Program of Missions." 

t " Strategic Points in the World's Conquest." 



220 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

and within the old Swedish Castle of Vadstena, a gather- 
ing of students was held, which has well been compared 
to that famous Haystack prayer meeting on Williams' Col- 
lege Hill, near the beginning of the century, which was 
the starting point of organized missionary work on this 
side of the sea. 

This Scandinavian Congress met to consider the ex- 
pediency of uniting the national intercollegiate movements 
of the whole world in one great federation, for three great 
ends : first, to associate Christian students of all lands more 
closely ; second, to enable them more deeply to impress na- 
tional as well as social and university life; and third, to 
influence fellow students to take up definite mission worlj: 
at home and abroad. 

At this conference the five great intercollegiate organi- 
zations had their representatives: The American Inter- 
collegiate Y. M. C. A. ; the British College Christian 
Union; the German Christian Students' Alliance^ the 
Scandinavian University Christian Movement; and the 
Student Christian Movement in Mission Lands. After 
days of prayer and holy conference, the constitution was 
unanimously adopted, by which the World's Student 
Christian Federation came to be a historic fact. The 
momentous importance attached to this new step may be 
inferred from the fact that no other student convention 
ever had been held in which delegates from all the great 
Protestant powers were present, and of this the impressive 
grouping of the respective flags of all these nations was the 
outward symbol and expression. 

The name adopted is itself a history. It tells of a student 
movement, distinctly Christian and world-embracing in 
membership and aim. It is a federation rather than a 
union, each previously existing organization keeping in 
the federal bond its own individual and independent char- 
acter. The great comprehensive object is to combine all 



UPRISING OF CHRISTIAN STUDENTS 221 

the available forces of the universities and colleges of the 
world in the many-sided work of winning educated young 
men for Christ, building them up in Him, and sending 
them out as workers for Him. 

The Federation being formed, other organizations 
joined it: The Intercollegiate Y. M. C. A. of India and 
Ceylon ; the Australian Student Christian Union ; the Stu- 
dents' Christian Association of South Africa; the College 
Y. M. C. A. of China, the Student Y. M. C. A. Union 
of Japan, etc. 

Certain ends must be directly promoted, such as : 

1. The full investigation of the exact moral and re- 
ligious status of students in every part of the world. 

2. The gradual and rapid improvement and development 
of all that is best in young manhood. 

3. The introduction into new and different fields, of or- 
ganized Christian activity under favorable conditions. 

4. The promotion of a living bond of sympathy among 
all educated Christian young men. 

5. The cultivation of a spirit of united prayer and sys- 
tematic Bible study. 

6. The study and development of that important science 
of comparative humanity — or young manhood in various 
conditions. 

7. The penetration and permeation of college life with 
an evangelical and missionary spirit. 

Gladstone remarked that in the middle ages the uni- 
versities " established a telegraph for the mind, and all the 
elements of intellectual culture scattered throughout Eu- 
rope were brought by them into near communion. They 
established a great brotherhood of the understanding." 
This federation establishes " a telegraph in things spiritual 
— a great student brotherhood in Jesus Christ." 

No one can watch this work without feeling God to be 



222 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

behind it, and rejoicing in its unifying power. Not only 
does it both simplify and unify methods of work among 
students, but brings Christian young men everywhere to 
recognize that oneness in Christ Jesus which must ever 
exist between true disciples, and will be seen and felt 
whenever the accidents of external separation and division 
are no longer allowed to have prominence. National and 
denominational barriers will be forgotten, as young men 
who belong to Christ in different lands and churches come 
together, federated into unity, to magnify only essentials 
and remand nonessentials to their true place. True Chris- 
tians need only to know each other to love each other ; and 
the devil triumphs whenever by any of his devices he can 
keep them from mutual and sympathetic contact. Already 
so far as relates to Christian educated young men, there is 
" no more sea ; " the barriers of language do not divide, and 
the national names are forgotten in the Christian name. 
Christ is in these days anew slaying the old enmity by his 
cross, and of Himself making one new man, not of twain 
only, but of a multitude of hitherto alienated and estranged 
bodies. 

The student's federation already blends into organized 
unity students belonging to over seventy branches of 
Christ's church, thus approaching the fulfillment of our 
Lord's prayer, " that they all may be one, that the world 
may believe that thou hast sent me ? " This federation is 
destined perhaps to be a grand means of promoting world- 
wide faith in the messiahship of the Lord Jesus. 

The ultimate object which the Lord has in view in this 
unifying process is thus a world's evangelization. Never 
since apostolic days have the duty, privilege, possibility, 
and feasibility of actually carrying to the whole world the 
message of salvation within the lifetime of one generation, 
been obvious to so many disciples. The work of evangeli- 
zation is a campaign, and the universities and colleges are 



UPRISING OF CHRISTIAN STUDENTS 223 

the strategic points which must be seized and held as com- 
manding the field, and determining the " line of communi- 
cation." 

The young men in our educational institutions are to be, 
and that very soon, the leaders of the nations. Our 
schools are the cradles of the coming princes, and whether 
they are to rule for God or for Satan, must soon be de- 
termined. If the Japanese maxim, telegraphed to the 
Northfield Conference of young men in the summer of 
1899, "Make Jesus King ! " becomes the motto of the 
leading educational centers of the world, with what unex- 
ampled rapidity will the earth be encompassed with the net- 
work of missions, and every creature reached with the 
good news ! 

All these movements are the visible working of an invis- 
ible power. What has taken place between the organiza- 
tion of young men for Christian service in 1844, and the 
Federation of Christian Students fifty years later, shows 
a supernatural hand. When less than twenty-five years 
ago the American Intercollegiate Y. M. C. A. was in- 
augurated, less than thirty college associations were to be 
found in the United States and Canada. Twenty-three 
years later, in about six hundred and forty higher educa- 
tional institutions within the same territory, these Chris- 
tian associations are rooted, and embrace over thirty-three 
thousand students and professors, and nearly as many stu- 
dents have been led to Christ by this means ; so that instead 
of one in three, there are about one-half of the students 
confessing Christ. Twelve thousand students are enrolled 
in the voluntary Bible classes of these associations, hav- 
ing multiplied fourfold in ten years. About five thousand 
young men have been led into the ministry; a still larger 
number having given their lives to foreign missions, over 
sixteen hundred of whom are on the foreign field. Dr. 
Roswell D. Hitchcock had already recognized, before his 



224 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

death some years since, that the great fact in the religious 
life of the college was the "omnipresence," and he felt 
half inclined to add, the " omnipotence," of the Intercol- 
legiate Y. M. C. A. 

Only six or seven years ago the British College Christian 
Union began its real work. At first seventeen universities 
and colleges were united in it. Three or four years later 
it embraced one hundred other organizations, and every 
considerable institution in the United Kingdom of Great 
Britain and Ireland was identified with it. Not only has 
there been this rapid increase in quantity, but the quality of 
the work done has been correspondingly enriched. Bible 
circles, private Bible study, aggressive work among stu- 
dents at the outset of their college career, personal and 
faithful dealing with the young men, and the actual win- 
ning of multitudes to Christ — these are among the marked 
signs of genuineness in the activity, and spirituality in the 
methods employed. 

There has been a missionary spirit at work — the infal- 
lible token of God's Spirit. The Student Foreign Mission- 
ary Union has become the mother of the Student Volun- 
teer Missionary Union. When this latter organization was 
formed, there were about three hundred expectant mis- 
sionaries among the British college students ; in 1897 that 
number had been multiplied over fourfold, and out of these 
twelve hundred over one-fourth were already in the for- 
eign field. The Student Missionary Convention, held in 
Liverpool in January 1896, was unsurpassed in spiritual 
power by any missionary meeting of our century. A 
thousand young men and women met for the purpose of 
organized effort to evangelize the world in their generation, 
and the meeting was presided over and conducted wholly 
by young men. Cambridge and Oxford — the very 
ganglia of the educational system and life of the British 
Empire — are now embraced in this»missionary uprising, as 



UPRISING OF CHRISTIAN STUDENTS 225 

well as the great university centers of Scotland, Wales, and 
Ireland, and thus the molds of the future leaders of the 
Church and State are becoming God's own matrices of 
character. 

Germany has exercised a mighty and dangerous influ- 
ence on modern religious thinking. The German mind is 
masculine, original and profound and persistent in re- 
search, but secular and sceptical in tendency, often not only 
rationalistic but materialistic. Germany has been the 
seedsower of religious, as France has been of scientific, 
scepticism. What a triumph for Christ, when the Ger- 
man students form a Christian alliance, form Bible circles, 
seek to promote personal purity and evangelical faith 
among young men, and do in a large and pervasive way 
among students at large, what the lamented Christlieb 
did at Bonn — infuse the spirit of simple faith. The Liver- 
pool Convention sent home delegates, anointed with spirit- 
ual power and thoroughly convinced of the danger and 
deadness of mere religious formalism, to kindle God's fires 
on the altars of Germany, and sow the seeds of missionary 
consecration. A year or two later there were over thirty 
student volunteers in German institutions, the influence 
daily spreading. In the twenty-one universities of that 
great European empire there are over thirty thousand stu- 
dents, with twenty-five hundred instructors, and this uni- 
versity army ranks next to the military force in influence 
and power. Can we afford to neglect the opportunity of 
turning this vast host of educators and educated into the' 
defense of the faith which otherwise they may undermine 
and assault? All great spiritual movements, like all great 
sceptical influences, are ultimately traceable to these 
thought-centers ; and here at the springs the salt must be 
cast in if the waters are to be healed. 

This movement, which embraced Britain and Germany, 
has also penetrated Scandinavia. In August, 1895, Nor- 



226 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

way and Sweden, Denmark and Finland, united in an 
inter-university organization. The Scandinavian universi- 
ties rank very high in popular favor, and are open to all 
classes. They are the higher schools for the masses; and 
yet their standards are very high, as is shown by the fact 
that a full medical course consumes a decade of years. 
These students are physically and intellectually worthy of 
their Norsemen ancestors, and to turn such strong men 
into sturdy disciples is worth any amount of effort and 
sacrifice. 

Then there is the student body of papal lands. A popu- 
lation of thirty millions in Italy, with about sixty thousand 
Protestants; about eighty educational institutions with 
twenty-five thousand students, and not one Christian or- 
ganization ! Is not this appalling ? The first Christian 
association was formed at Torre Pellice, the historic center 
of the Waldensian Church that for six centuries has stood 
out firmly against Romish intrigue and persecution. 
France, Austria, Hungary, Spain and Portugal, and Bel- 
gium are included in the scheme of the Students' Christian 
Federation, and the one hundred and thirteen thousand 
young men of the seven papal lands of the Continent are 
to be saved, if possible, from the drift of scepticism, and 
agnosticism, and materialism, and sensualism, to which 
they are terribly exposed. 

The earnest spirit of those who are at the head of this 
world movement, can not be restrained within the bounds 
of one continent or two. They are reaching out the hand 
of help to the remoter East. Turkey is not forgotten, 
where Robert College furnishes so admirable a center of 
operations. This Christian institution on the shores of 
the Bosphorus has sent forth three hundred and twenty- 
five graduates. It has furnished teachers for Bulgaria and 
Armenia; it has drawn students from fourteen nationali- 
ties, and sent many of them back as missionaries to their 



UPRISING OF CHRISTIAN STUDENTS 227 

own people; and it has been happily compared with the 
noble Syrian College at Beirut, the Duff College at Cal- 
cutta, and the earlier days of the Doshisha at Japan. 

Greece, with its historic Athens and its thirty-five hun- 
dred students is included; Syria, with its sacred sites; 
Nazareth and Jerusalem are to be Y. M. C. A. centers; 
and Beirut, whose college has practically created the med- 
ical profession in the Levant, and supplied the educated 
class for the whole territory round about Palestine, and 
whose printing press to-day sends its unrivaled Arabic Bi- 
bles throughout the Arabic-speaking world, with its hun- 
dred and fifty million people. Is it of no consequence to 
bring the young men of these countries into living contact 
with holy fruits of Christian culture in the Occident, and 
lead them to a pure faith and a dedicated life? 

Look again at the Nile Valley. One theological college, 
founded by the United Presbyterians at Cairo, has sup- 
plied all the ordained native ministers of Egypt. The 
training college at Asyut has four hundred students, and 
has educated five times as many, and most of its graduates 
have become teachers or preachers of the Gospel. So high 
do these Christian schools stand in even the government's 
esteem that its own schools have been largely modeled 
thereby. Here a Y. M. C. A. has been organized. Is not 
this a true strategic center for the world campaign? The 
followers of Mohammed think so, as the great University 
of El Azhar, with its seven thousand students from all 
parts of the realm, swayed by the green flag of the cres- 
cent, sufficiently proves. It has a nine years' course of 
study, and is, on the whole, the greatest propaganda in 
the world. 

The new century is to reveal Christian work among 
the students of all lands. Especially will India have a 
strategic value as a center both of activity and influence. 
Here meetings have been held by scores by Mr. Mott, the 



228 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

proceedings all in the English tongue, and the tide of 
spiritual awakening rising steadily to the last. One hun- 
dred and twenty educational institutions were represented, 
and the total number of students registered was seven 
hundred and fifty-nine, or, including Ceylon, over one 
thousand. Three hundred and eleven missionaries, repre- 
senting nearly all the sixty societies at work in India, were 
in attendance. Seventy-six students accepted Christ as 
Savior and Lord, in face of terrible obstacles, and one hun- 
dred and twenty-seven delegates volunteered for mission- 
service in India. Five hundred and seventy-seven cove- 
nanted to keep the morning watch of Bible study and 
prayer. 

China had its series of conferences, at which over twelve 
hundred of the educated class of students or teachers were 
present. All but two of the higher institutions sent dele- 
gates. Four hundred and eleven missionaries were pres- 
ent, and thirty-seven missionary societies were represented. 
The total number of regular delegates at the four confer- 
ences, — Chefoo, Peking, Shanghai, and Foochow — reached 
three thousand, and came from the ends of the empire. 
The meetings revealed a constantly rising tide of interest 
and power. Eight hundred pledged to keep the morning 
watch; over one hundred serious inquirers, seventy-seven 
volunteers for Christian work, and general tokens of a 
great spiritual awakening were among the notable signs 
of God's hand. The number of Y. M. C. A. was multi- 
plied fivefold ; steps were taken towards a national organ- 
ization, and the college Y. M. C. A. of China was formed 
in November, 1896, and at once admitted to the Federa- 
tion ; and thus the great land — the Gibraltar of the Orient, 
where the population embraces one-fourth of the whole 
race of man now living, where the combination of diffi- 
culties is the most appallingly formidable, where the pos- 
sibilities are correspondingly great, the great land of which 



UPRISING OF CHRISTIAN STUDENTS 229 

Napoleon said, " When China is moved it will change the 
face of the globe," — was visited by Mr. Mott, with most 
cheering tokens of God's presence and power. 

We add a comprehensive resume of the whole work as 
presented in Mr. Mott's Round the World Tour. 

During twenty months 60,000 miles were included, and 
twenty-two countries, and one hundred and forty-four 
educational institutions. Twenty-one conferences were 
held, with fifty-five hundred delegates, of whom thirty- 
three hundred were representatives of three hundred and 
eight institutions of learning; seventy students' Christian 
associations were organized, and many more reorganized 
or reinvigorated. Five national student Christian move- 
ments were promoted, and much other work was done in- 
cidental to the creation of a literature of devotion and hab- 
its of holy living and praying. Over five hundred young 
men were led to acceptance of the Savior, including stu- 
dents who had been Buddhists, Brahmans, Confucianists, 
and Mohammedans, Agnostics, and Sceptics. Some 
twenty-two hundred pledged themselves to the " morning 
watch," and about three hundred gave their lives to defi- 
nite work for Christ. The greatest result of all is one 
that can not be put on paper, or tabulated in statistics. A 
great world-wide volume of interest, sympathy, prayer, 
was created, which, like ocean tides and trade winds, has 
a strange power of far-reaching communication and in- 
fluence, and is likely to be a permanent and increasing 
factor in both the unification of disciples and the evan- 
gelization of the world. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE PROBLEM OF CITY EVANGELIZATION 

The familiar phrase, " The Church and the masses," 
suggests, perhaps, the most perplexing question of the 
home field : What can be done to get hold of the great bulk 
of our city population who now attend no church? The 
late Dr. John Hall quaintly observed that " in Britain the 
population is divided between churchmen and dissenters ; 
in America between church-goers and absenters." 

Pope, angling for a compliment, after he had published 
his " Essay on Man," asked Mallet what new things there 
were in literature, and the reply was, " O, nothing worth 
notice — only a poor thing called an ' Essay on Man/ made 
up of shocking poetry and insufferable philosophy." " I 
wrote it," cried Pope, stung with rage, and Mallet darted 
out of the room, abashed at his blunder in thus offending 
its author unawares. 

The Church is practically writing an " essay on man " 
which, it is to be feared, is not very honoring to the Master 
or His disciples. It is a patent fact that for half a century 
there has been a constantly widening gulf between the 
Church and the mass of the people. Candor compels the 
admission that there has been little systematic effort to 
gather in the non-church-goers, or even to provide accom- 
modations for them, for not more than one-fifth of our 
city population attend church, and not more than one- 
third could find sittings, if they wanted them. Candor 
likewise compels the concession that the responsibility for 
church neglect lies largely at the door of Christian dis- 

230 



PROBLEM OF CITY EVANGELIZATION 231 

ciples. Church buildings are transferred to fashionable 
localities, and if any work is carried on in the deserted 
quarters, it is done in mission chapels, which suggest an 
invidious distinction, and foster a caste spirit. Churches 
that were once greatly blessed of God in gathering in the 
people, are even now consolidating and moving " up 
town," both decreasing the number of church buildings in 
proportion to the population, and removing from the quar- 
ters where the greatest need exists. The fashionable 
church, with its rich surroundings, large-salaried pastor, 
costly choir, etc., is not intended for the poor, and they 
know it, and do not feel at ease, and will not come. 

In former days a large part of the ministers in New 
England had small salaries, and eked out a subsistence by 
farming. If they were not so learned or eloquent as the 
ministers of our day, they were linked closely with the 
people, and the churches were full, and revivals were fre- 
quent. Have not our modern churches too much taken 
on the cast of the religious club, their buildings becom- 
ing the resort of those who can afford the luxuries of 
the club-house? Can we blame the poverty-stricken mul- 
titude for having the impression that they are outcasts, in 
the very nature of things, from these elaborate temples 
with their elegant garniture and furniture? 

There are many more things that might in honesty be 
added as to the actual and undeniable causes of the pres- 
ent estrangement between the churches and the common 
folk. The Gospel, the Spirit of God, the love of souls, 
are just as mighty to-day as ever, and, if these were really 
depended on, and practically operative, the churches 
would regain and retain hold on the people. 

Our present purpose is to call attention to three practical y/ 
examples of actual success in reaching the common folk — 
three examples, each of which presents the subject from a 
different point of view: Thomas Chalmers in Glasgow, 



232 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

Charles H. Spurgeon in London, and John Wanamaker in 
Philadelphia. 
J Chalmers may be called the parish evangelist. He is 
especially worthy of a permanent record, as one of the men 
who led the way in the practical solution of that great 
problem of our civilization : " How to deal with the masses 
in our great cities." At his sixty-fifth year we find this 
greatest of Scotchmen on fire with all his youthful ardor, 
in this mission to the masses in Edinburgh, where, as in 
Ephesus, the gold, silver, and precious stones of the sacred 
fanes and palaces were in strong contrast to the wood, 
hay, stubble of the huts and hovels of the poor. With sub- 
lime devotion Chalmers at this advanced age, when most 
men retire from active and arduous toil, entered upon the 
most difficult experiment of his life, that he might demon- 
strate by a practical example what can be done for the poor 
and neglected districts in a great metropolis. 

The West Port, in the " old town " of Edinburgh, was 
the home of a population whose condition may be de- 
scribed by two words, poverty and misery. He undertook 
to redeem this heathen district by the Gospel, planting in 
it schools and a church for the people, and organizing 
Christian disciples into a band of voluntary visitors. The 
name " territorial system " was attached to the plan as he 
worked it, and has passed into history under that sonorous 
title. In St. John's Parish, Glasgow, he had already 
proved the power of visitation and organization. Within 
his parochial limits he found two thousand one hundred 
and sixty-one families, eight hundred and forty-five of 
them without any seats in a place of worship. He assigned 
to each visitor about fifty families. Applications for relief 
were dealt with systematically, and so carefully, yet thor- 
oughly, that not a case either of scandalous allowance or 
scandalous neglect was ever made known against him and 
his visitors. There was a severe scrutiny to find out the 



PROBLEM OF CITY EVANGELIZATION 233 

fact and the causes of poverty, to remove necessary want, 
and remedy unnecessary want by removing its cause. The 
bureau of intelligence made imposture and trickery hope- 
less, especially on a second attempt. And not only was 
poverty relieved, but at a cost which is amazingly small. 
While in other parishes of Glasgow it averaged two hun- 
dred to every thousand of the population, and in many 
parishes of England it averaged a pound for every inhab- 
itant; in St. John's it was but thirty pounds for one thou- 
sand people. 

It was an illustration of heroism, in these modern times, 
when a man, past threescore years, whose public career, 
both with his pen and tongue, had made him everywhere 
famous, gave up his latter days to elevate the physical, 
mental, moral and spiritual condition of a squalid population 
in an obscure part of the modern Athens. His theory was 
that about four hundred families constitute a manageable 
town parish, and that for every such territorial district 
there ought to be a church and a school, as near as may 
be, free to all. This district in West Port contained about 
this number of families, which were sub-divided into 
twenty " proportions," each containing some twenty fam- 
ilies. 

A careful census, taken by visiting, revealed that, of four 
hundred and eleven families, forty-five were attached to 
some Protestant church, seventy were Roman Catholics, 
and two hundred and ninety-six had no church connection. 
Out of a gross population of two thousand, one thousand 
five hundred went to no place of worship, and of four hun- 
dred and eleven children of school age, two hundred and 
ninety were growing up entirely in ignorance. It is a 
curious fact that these four hundred and eleven families 
averaged one child each of appropriate age for school, and 
that of these four hundred and eleven children there were 
about as many growing up untaught as there were fam- 



234 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

ilies without church connection. This careful compilation 
of statistics revealed that the proportions of ignorance and 
non-attendance at church correspond almost exactly; in 
other words, families that attend a place of worship com- 
monly send children to school, and the reverse. 

Another fact unveiled by this effort at city evangeliza- 
tion was that about one-fourth of the inhabitants of this 
territory were paupers, receiving out-door relief, and one- 
fourth were habitual, professional beggars, tramps, 
thieves, and riffraff. 

Here was a field, indeed, for an experiment as to what 
the church could do in her mission among the masses. 
Chalmers was hungry for such an opportunity; it stirred 
all his Scotch blood. So he set his visitors at work. But 
he did not himself stand aloof. Down into the " wynds," 
and alleys, and " closes " of West Port he went ; he pre- 
sided at their meetings, counseled the people sympathetic- 
ally, identified himself with the whole plan in its forma- 
tion and execution, while, his own contagious enthusiasm 
and infectious energy gave stimulus to the most faint- 
hearted. He loved to preach to these people, not less than 
to the most elegant audiences of the capital, or the elect 
students of the university. He would mount into a loft 
to meet a hundred of the poorest as gladly as ascend the 
pulpit of the most fashionable cathedral church, crowded 
with the elite of the world's metropolis. And those ragged 
boys and girls hung on his words with characteristic ad- 
miration. 

Two years of toil, with the aid of Rev. W. Tasker, en- 
abled Dr. Chalmers to open a new free church in this 
district; the Lord's Supper was administered, and out of 
one hundred and thirty-two communicants, one hundred 
were trophies of the work done by him and his helpers in 
that obscure district. With a prophetic forecast Chalmers 
saw in this success the presage of greater possibilities, and 



PROBLEM OF CITY EVANGELIZATION 235 

a practical solution of the problem of city evangelization, 
and hence he confessed it was the joy of his life and the 
answer to many prayers. 

The plan pursued by Dr. Chalmers was not at all like 
the modern evangelistic services — an effort spasmodic, if 
not sporadic; preaching for a few weeks in some church 
edifice or public hall or tabernacle, and then passing into 
some other locality, leaving to others to gather up results 
and make them permanent. From the most premising 
beginnings of this sort, how often have we been compelled 
to mourn that so small harvests have been ultimately 
gleaned ! He organized systematic work that looked to 
lasting results. The plowman and the sower of seed also 
bore his sickle, and watched for the signs of harvest. And 
whenever the germs of a Divine life appeared they were 
nurtured, cherished, guarded, and converts were added to 
the church, set at work, kept under fostering care, and not 
left to scatter, wander at will, or relapse into neglect. 

As to his mode of dealing with pauperism, the sagacious 
Chalmers saw that, while a ministry of love to the poor, 
sick, helpless was a first necessity, it would be unwise and 
hurtful to their best interests to encourage them to depend 
on charity. The church must not be an asylum in which 
indolence and incompetence and improvidence should take 
refuge. The poorest must be educated to maintain, rather 
than to sacrifice, self-respect, and compelled to form and 
maintain habits of self-help, industry, economy, thrift. In- 
stead of clothing the poor with the half-worn garments of 
the better class, he would have them taught to save money 
worse than wasted on tobacco, drink, and vicious indul- 
gence, and buy their own garments. And the results of 
this wise policy were seen in the gradual and rapid im- 
provement in appearance of the attendants at church — 
rags gave way to respectable raiment, which was not the 
cast-off clothing of their betters. 



236 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

Chalmers had no less ambition than to ameliorate and 
finally abolish pauperism, and his success in St. John's 
Parish, Glasgow, had proven that he was master of the 
situation; and no one can tell what results might have 
followed but for the Poor Law, enacted in 1845, which, by 
the admission of a statutory right to public relief, en- 
courages improvidence, weakens family ties among the 
poor, conduces to a morbid satisfaction with a state of 
dependence, and thus sows the seed of the very pauperism 
it professes to relieve and reduce. 
J Charles H. Spurgeon met with the greatest success of 
any man of our century in gathering the common people 
about him and holding them for over forty years. His 
methods were totally diverse from those of Chalmers. He 
was too busy with his pen, and too remote in residence 
from the mass of his adherents, and too frail in bodily 
health, to do a work of parish visitation, or go himself 
among the people. Spurgeon's power lay in the preaching 
of a plain, searching, rousing Gospel message. He was less 
the teacher than the preacher. Others have excelled him 
in pulpit exposition and systematic exegesis, as did Adolph 
Saphir, and as Alexander McLaren does to-day. But few 
men ever excelled him in the power to preach the Gospel 
so as to lay hold of mind, heart, conscience, and will. 
Some attribute his success to his humor, or his mimicry, 
or his dramatic power, or his simplicity of character; but 
the real secret was deeper: Spurgeon preached as a man 
who believed his message and meant to make others be- 
lieve it; as one who loved Christ and rejoiced in Him, and 
meant to constrain others to love and rejoice in Him. And 
all the rest was but accessory to this, his main method. He 
practised no art but the divine art of earnestness, and his 
whole soul was on fire with his message. The conspicuous 
absence of all studied artistic aid was most undeniable. 

The Metropolitan Tabernacle building was immense, 



PROBLEM OF CITY EVANGELIZATION 237 

but there was no decoration. It was built simply to hold 
the people and enable everybody to see and hear with com- 
fort, and from four thousand to six thousand assembled 
there every Lord's Day, morning and evening. There 
was nothing but congregational singing led by a precentor, 
and not even a pretense to fine music, no organ or choir,, 
not even modern popular hymns and songs. But the peo- 
ple went and kept going, and they were the common folk 
— the rich were comparatively the few, and so were the 
cultivated ; the bulk of Spurgeon's congregation was com- 
posed of the poor, the unlettered, the humble folk of the 
great metropolis. 

We turn now to John Wanamaker, whom, being still 
living, it would be indelicate to compliment or praise. 
Bethany Church in Philadelphia, whoever may have been 
its pastors, owes mainly to Mr. Wanamaker whatever it 
is as a church of the people, and we know of no instance 
so conspicuous in America of success, carried on for over 
forty years, in reaching the masses of the common people. 
The secret here is somewhat unlike that of either Chalmers 
or Spurgeon. The origin of this work was peculiar, and 
it has stamped the whole history with its likeness. There 
has never been an essential deviation from the primary 
and "original purpose, which was to reach people who had 
no church home. 

At the twentieth anniversary of the organization of 
Bethany Church, in 1885, Mr. Wanamaker himself told 
the history of the enterprise, reluctantly because he was 
necessarily so conspicuous in it. But it was a thrilling 
story. 

On a February afternoon in 1858, he, with Mr. Toland, 
a missionary of the Sunday-school Union, began a mission- 
school in a second story back room on Pine street. Driven 
out of this first room by the rowdies of the neighborhood, 
they tried again on South street, and at the first session 



238 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

gathered twenty-seven children and two women, besides 
Mr. Wanamaker and Mr. Toland. To-day in that huge 
Sunday-school building between two thousand and three 
thousand children and adults gather every Sunday after- 
noon, while Mr. Wanamaker's own Bible-class fills the 
spacious adjoining church. Bethany has a membership of 
over three thousand, and the people never tire of going 
there. The Gospel is preached ; but there is another secret : 
the people are loved and sought and made at home. They 
are taught that the whole of this great institutional church 
is for them, their home, and that everybody is there made 
welcome for his own sake, and not for the sake of his 
money, his learning, his social status, his business influence,, 
his ability to help, or his external surroundings. Here is 
a model institutional church, and its history and methods 
are well worthy of study. 

For over forty years Bethany Church has demonstrated 
that the common people, and in great multitudes, can be 
got hold of and kept hold of, and that success is not spas- 
modic and uncertain, but permanent and uniform. In Feb- 
ruary, 1899, the writer, a former pastor, went there to 
speak at an anniversary of the Bible Union, spending a 
Sabbath with his former flock. He attended and addressed 
nine meetings, which filled the day from an early hour of 
the morning until the close of the evening service. It was 
a day of hard rain, and most church buildings would have 
been two-thirds empty. Bethany was well filled. There 
were little children's meetings, and services for all ages 
and classes. Bible study was the one marked employment 
and enjoyment. There were fellowship and brotherhood 
meetings, all bright, cheery, sunny, helpful. Mr. Wana- 
maker was ubiquitous — he was everybody's friend, cordial 
and hearty, simple and accessible to all. No one would 
suppose that he was an ex-postmaster-general and a mil- 
lionaire, conducting business on a scale almost unparalleled. 



PROBLEM OF CITY EVANGELIZATION 239 

He was as thoroughly free from airs or assumptions, as 
tho he were the common workingman from the carpenter's 
bench or the shoemaker's shop. Forty years of unique 
success in his own business and the Lord's business, which 
he seeks to make practically one, have not made him any 
less the man of the people, and the humble believer in the 
Christ. All his genius for organization has been turned 
into the Lord's work at Bethany. His great Bible class 
numbers well on to 2,000, and it is divided into centuries 
of one hundred each, with a centurion at the head, and 
these into companies of ten, with a titheman at the head, 
The tithemen keep track of attendance, collect the offer- 
ings, and take oversight of the physical and spiritual well- 
being of the little bands under their care. If there be sick- 
ness, the sick are cared for, and if in any one band there is 
more illness than that band can manage, other bands come 
to their help. By this simple system of diversion, every- 
body is kept track of, and feels the influence of oversight. 
Men, women, and children feel themselves to be somebody 
because somebody else takes interest in their welfare. 

There is scarce a night in the week when something is 
not going on at Bethany. The people learn to associate 
church life with everything that is helpful and attractive. 
The channel is always open to the popular current, and the 
current flows that way. Prayer meetings are thronged ; 
and so is every other sort of service. And around Bethany 
gather lay college savings bank, deaconesses' house, book- 
room, and whatever encourages frugality, charity, and 
service. The neighborhood is transformed. Mr. Wana- 
maker obtained control of blocks of buildings that he 
might build homes for the people and displace whisky- 
shops by cheap and neat houses. The church is in the 
midst of a settlement, where peace and order reign. 

Nothing will explain Bethany but Bethany itself. It is 
not a place or an institution to be photographed or de- 



240 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

scribed. It must be seen and heard and felt. There is 
nothing dry, stale, perfunctory about it — no dead ortho- 
doxy nor cold refrigerating propriety. There is life and 
love, warmth and motion. And while this great church 
stands, and is faithful to the truth and the Christ, it can 
not be said truthfully that the people can not be drawn to 
places of worship, or kept within the embrace of the 
Church of God. A kid glove is a non-conductor ; but the 
open hand and the warm heart can be made mighty by 
God's Spirit to lay hold of the neglected and indifferent, 
and make them members of Christ's mystical body. 

Of late Bethany church-building has undergone ex- 
tensive repair and enlargement, greatly adding to its fit- 
ness for its great mission, and it is now the most com- 
plete edifice for church purposes in the world. It richly 
repays the trouble of a visit, especially on the Lord's Day. 

It may be interesting to add a little information about 
the men and women's guild at Bethany, known as the 
Superintendent's Bible-Class. We reprint the circular of 
the guild in the appendix. 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE STIMULATION OF MISSIONARY ZEAL 

The best products are of slow growth. Dr. Morgan, 
of Oberlin, warned a young man, who was rushing into 
the sacred calling without due time for training, that God 
takes long years to grow an oak, but, if it be only a 
squash, a few weeks suffice. Time is needed to think 
thoroughly and plan wisely; but the restless spirit 
invades all departments of life, and the modern motto 
seems to be " push and rush." Even sacred activities are 
subject to this insane hurry. Sermons must be short, 
prayer-meetings brief, closet devotion timed by the clock; 
there is no leisure so much as to eat with moderation. 

At this fast pace there can be no proper acquisition and 
assimilation of knowledge. Cramming takes the place 
of learning; to pass an examination depends more on 
memory than on understanding, and implies no lasting im- 
pression. True information is in-form-ation, knowledge 
crystallized into a structure within the mind. 

The main hindrances to a true zeal for missions are self- 
ishness and innate hostility to divine things, and these 
must first be broken down. But true zeal for God is in- 
separable from knowledge, and knowledge takes time. To 
learn facts demands pains and patience ; but nothing save 
holiness commands such homage as a thorough mastery 
of facts, which is the rarest and costliest product in the 
mental market. When Daniel Webster heard Prof. Silli- 
man talk for an hour about the application of chemistry 
to agriculture, his great intellect bowed before the scientist, 

241 



242 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

and, with a child's docility, he said to Mrs. Silliman: 
" Were I rich, I would pay your husband $20,000 to come 
and sit down by me and teach me, for I know nothing." 
This was in 1852, the year of Webster's death, when his 
knowledge was ripest. 

Various efforts have been made during the last half 
century to awaken more zeal for a world's evangelization. 
It has been combat with the giants. A colossal ignorance 
of the whole matter, and a colossal indifference largely due 
to that — a son of the other giant — have confronted the ad- 
vocates of missions ; and success has been only in propor- 
tion as these have been driven from their strongholds.. 
If, even yet, the average disciple knows so little of the 
real condition of the world-wide field, fifty years ago 
the ignorance was appalling. With here and there an ex- 
ception, even intelligent Christians had then so little idea 
of the extent, destitution, and degradation of pagan, papal, 
and moslem fields, that the rudiments of a missionary edu- 
cation seemed lacking, and many could not even pray in- 
telligently. Ignorance was not so culpable while there 
were few facilities for getting information; but cheap, 
varied, attractive, and effective means now are at hand, 
whereby all may inform themselves as to the exact condi- 
tion of the world's need and of the Church's work. 

Of all the means, used for the stimulation of missionary 
zeal, one takes the first rank — the creation of a rich and 
abundant missionary literature. This is a little world in 
itself, and consists mainly of three classes of books and 
other printed matter : first, historical and biographical ; 
second, topical and philosophical ; third, descriptive and 
pictorial. Beside the statelier volumes are periodical is- 
sues, whose name is legion, more evanescent in character, 
designed to keep track of the march of the Lord's hosts — 
they are the bulletins of the war of the ages. The women's 
boards have done great service in supplying missionary 



STIMULATION OF MISSIONARY ZEAL 243 

leaflets, brief, telling, cheap, available for gratuitous dis- 
tribution, and fitted to win their way to even the hasty and 
careless reader. As to the half-century's aggregate 
product in the literature of missions, they cover every field 
from Japan to Alaska, and from Greenland to Patagonia ; 
they span all the centuries from Christ's advent to the 
present day ; they embrace geography, philology, sociology, 
religious belief and customs, dress, diet, habits of life, art, 
science, medical work — every variety of topic within the 
range of the great theme. Of the religious products of 
the press in the last ten years alone, considered as to quan- 
tity, probably one-fourth have to do with missions either 
directly or indirectly, and as to quality the class of books 
produced would do honor to any author or theme. Many 
of them are superbly gotten up and illustrated, written by 
the foremost writers of the day, deserving careful read- 
ing and study. Surely, so far as missionary zeal depends 
on information, there is no apology for ignorance and 
apathy. As Rev. F. B. Meyer says, " There is no sense in 
always telegraphing to heaven for God to send a cargo 
of blessing, unless we are at the wharf to unload the vessel 
when it comes." There is, nowadays, the guilt of wilful 
ignorance, if there be no real knowledge of God's work in 
this world. If all may not go abroad, all may help those 
who do go, by intelligent sympathy and cooperating 
prayers. As Godet says, one thing is greater than working 
miracles, and that is to confer the power of miracle work- 
ing. And one thing is as great as to be a missionary, and 
that is to foster the missionary spirit that makes mission- 
aries of others by the contagion of our zeal. This latter is 
possible to every man and woman, and finds its field any- 
where and everywhere where our lot is cast. 

One method of stimulating missionary zeal is mainly the 
outcome of the last ten years, and may be called the exposi- 
tion of missions, borrowing from the French th£ term 



244 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

associated in our minds with an exhibit of those products 
of human invention and industry which serve as exponents 
of progress. 

More than ten years ago, under the caption, " An Expo- 
sition of Missions," the writer advocated some such ex- 
hibit of the history and progress of missionary work in a 
form which might appeal to the eye, vividly presenting 
the contrast between the original and present conditions of 
the various peoples among whom the Gospel has had 
a fair chance to work. Some such exhibit was urged in 
connection with the Columbian Exposition, and steps were 
taken toward it, but stopped short of the goal. Some 
such seed-thought found lodgment and bore fruit, how- 
ever, in the Missionary Literature Exhibits at the Student 
Volunteer Conventions, and across the sea the Church Mis- 
sionary Society has for years been holding a series of 
such exhibits on a larger scale and with great success. In 
halls arranged for such purposes, collections of costumes, 
implements, models, etc., have been made, illustrative of 
the daily life of foreign missionaries in various lands, and 
of the habits and customs of the people among whom they 
labor, retired or returned missionaries being in charge, 
who assist by explanations, adding thus a verbal exposition 
of what is exhibited to the eye. Thus both by eye-gate and 
ear-gate the city of Mansoul is approached. Such success 
has crowned this scheme that in Birmingham alone ioo,- 
ooo visitors were admitted by ticket. 

A similar method of exhibiting facts, arousing zeal, and 
raising funds for mission work was exemplified in the ex- 
hibit in connection with the Ecumenical conference in 
New York city in May, 1900; and in hopes to promote 
such, elsewhere, we here present some details of the actual 
working of such schemes for practical education in mis- 
sions. 

The " Missionary Loan Exhibition " is the name by 



STIMULATION OF MISSIONARY ZEAL 245 

which these exhibits have been known in Britain. For 
example, such a Loan Exhibition was held in the Dome 
and Corn Exchange, Brighton, for three days, and the 
following " hints about loans " were published for the in- 
formation of such as would assist. 

1. The date fixed for the opening of the exhibition is Wednes- 
day, November 29th, and it would be well if all articles from a 
distance lent for the occasion should reach Brighton on Satur- 
day, November 25th, and local contributions not later than Mon- 
day, November 27th. 

2. All packages should be addressed Missionary Exhibition, 
The Dome, Brighton. The committee will gladly pay carriage 
both ways, if desired. Address-labels are inclosed herewith, and, 
if insufficient, a further supply will be sent on application. 

3. The dispatch of such packages should be advised to the 
Honorary Secretaries, The Dome, Brighton. 

4. A full description of each article sent for exhibition will 
very greatly add to the interest and usefulness of the contribution. 
This information should be given in as concise form as possible, 
suitable for publication in a catalogue. It is recommended that 
a duplicate copy be kept of the list supplied, and that each article 
bear some private mark by which it can easily be identified. 

5. Packing. The committee will undertake on their part to 
repack everything with the greatest care, so as to insure safe 
transit, and hope their friends will kindly take equal care. 

6. The exhibition is intended to include objects of interest of 
every description from any of the following countries : — Africa 
(East, West, and Central), Palestine, India (North, West, and 
South), Ceylon, China, Japan, N. W. America, and New Zealand. 
Articles of clothing, or food, all works of art, books, writing 
materials, models, pictures, photographs of native buildings, es- 
pecially when illustrative of missionary progress, objects of wor- 
ship, etc., will be acceptable. 

An illustrated prospectus was published in connection 
with the Bristol exhibits, the prospectus itself being a val- 
uable pictorial pamphlet. Four thousand curios from all 
parts of the heathen and Mohammedan world were there 
to be seen, a unique collection, not easily brought together 



246 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

again. There were illustrated lectures, and luncheons 
provided for visitors. Season tickets for one person, avail- 
able during the whole time, were purchasable for about 
fifty cents, and the hall was divided into courts: African, 
Indian, Chinese, Syrian, Egyptian, Canadian, Japanese, 
etc. 

The Zenana department contained a full-sized model 
room in a Bengali zenana, fully furnished ; and ladies con- 
nected with zenana work gave there explanation of the life 
and customs of women in India, illustrated with native 
costumes, the mode of cooking, etc., being also shown. 
Missionaries from Japan similarly expounded Japanese 
manners ; and models of idols, temples, private houses, 
suits of armor, jinrikshas, prayer charms, bronzes and 
bamboo work, ancestral tablets and shrines, embroidery 
and wearing apparel, etc., were to be seen. 

Donations of provisions and money relieved the com- 
mittee of expense, and promoted the success of the exhibit. 
Circulars were issued with instructions to stewards, which 
made all mistakes avoidable and promoted efficient service. 
While the exhibit was dependent largely upon local aid for 
its material and success, many of the articles used were, of 
course, available also for use in other localities — such as 
the models of buildings, etc. 

No success can be assured without painstaking prepara- 
tion. And the " official hand-book and guide," issued in 
connection with the Bristol exhibit — a book of 170 pages — 
attests the care taken to make it a grand triumph. It was 
a rare chance to study missions, for an observer who went 
through the seven courts or sections of the exhibit, would 
feel as tho he had made a tour of the countries repre- 
sented, with intelligent guides to the interpretation of what 
he saw, and all at a trifling cost of time and money. 

The projectors of the Bristol exhibit say, in review of 
the whole enterprise: 



STIMULATION OF MISSIONARY ZEAL 247 

The work was not one which was hastily undertaken. An 
executive and sub-committees were formed; the various depart- 
ments of preparatory work gradually took shape; from the first, 
it was felt that without prayer no real success could be attained, 
and so in private, and in all the regular meetings of the various 
committees, the subject was continually commended to God; and 
all interested in the work of foreign missions were specially asked 
to cooperate. Thus by prayer and persistent effort linked to- 
gether, the work was carried forward, and, as a consequence, per- 
fect unanimity of feeling and a gathering enthusiasm were in- 
creasingly manifest as the time approached, and everything was 
done to make the effort as far as possible worthy of the object 
we had in view, and those who had the privilege of visiting the 
exhibition, must at least have felt that the efforts put forth 
were not in vain, but had been graciously accepted of God, and 
that he was using it as an effective means of diffusing a deeper 
and wider interest among us in the great work of the evan- 
gelization of the heathen. The primary idea which was con- 
stantly present to the minds of the promoters, was not to make 
it a means of collecting money, but rather to spread information, 
awaken sympathy, and to elicit self-denying effort in the cause 
of foreign missions, and this idea of subordinating all attempts 
at pecuniary profit to the fostering of the missionary spirit, was 
kept conspicuously prominent throughout, and was, we believe, 
one of the reasons why God has deigned to use the effort for 
His glory. 

The organization, which was gradually called into existence, 
rendered the effort of making the public acquainted with our in- 
tentions specially effective; we rested not so much on newspaper 
advertisements, tho these were not neglected, as upon the rami- 
fications of parochial endeavor, and the personal influence of many 
friends; means were found by which even parishes which did 
not specially sympathize with the C. M. S. were not left in the 
dark as to the nature and objects of the approaching exhibition, 
and so, when at length the opening day arrived, the public were 
prepared to take advantage of what had been provided, and 
crowds thronged the building from the very first, and in this the 
case of Bristol differed from other localities where similar ex- 
hibitions were held, for while in these it often happened that 
several days were required before the full interest of the people 
was awakened, with us that interest was apparent from the com- 



248 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

mencement, and this was mainly due to the laborious and per- 
sistent use of every legitimate means within our reach. 

It was especially pleasing to note the continuous attendance of 
the visitors at the different courts, even when there was no 
special exposition going on ; the people seemed patiently to listen, 
from hour to hour, to the instruction given by the stewards, and 
on the second day the crowds surrounding each court became so 
large that it was found needful to have a steward placed upon 
a chair, at a little distance from the court, where he or she, 
holding up successive exhibits, explained them to a still larger 
circle. 

The model zenana was an object of special attraction, and was 
in every respect admirably worked. It was said that the proceeds 
from this source amounted, for a time, to nearly a shilling a 
minute, and what was far more important, a vivid description 
was there given, to a continuous stream of eager inquirers, of the 
degraded condition of women in India and the East, and the 
terrible need of increased efforts for their Christian instruction 
and social elevation. 

Short, spirited addresses were delivered from time to time, il- 
lustrated by several ingenious devices, by which were set forth 
the extent of the heathen world still unevangelized, the com- 
paratively small impressions modern missions had yet made, the 
inadequacy of the means which are being employed and the small 
amount contributed to foreign missions, when compared with 
the enormous sums spent yearly upon luxuries of various kinds. 
It was scarcely possible to listen to these expositions without 
feeling that something more ought to be done for the extension 
of the Redeemer's Kingdom, and the gifts which were put in the 
scale were a kind of pledge that it would be soon. 

The admirable way in which the Free Missionary Literature 
had been previously sorted, so that it might be given with in- 
telligent purpose and discrimination, was, we believe, a unique 
feature in our exhibition, and the patient way in which that 
literature was disseminated, so that there could scarcely have 
been a single visitor who left the building without some printed 
missionary information, can not be without some fruit in future. 
It is also to be noted that the arrangements made for the re- 
ception of the children of the various elementary schools of 
Bristol, and the neighborhood, worked without a hitch. Every 
morning some 2,000 children, or more, streamed into the building, 
and from nine to eleven o'clock they were instructed by persons 



STIMULATION OF MISSIONARY ZEAL 249 

specially apointed for that purpose, and as they passed from court 
to court they were shown objects of interest and attraction, il- 
lustrating the habits and customs and the religions which exist 
in different parts of the heathen world, and the urgent need 
that there is to give to them the bright and blessed message of 
the Savior's love was pressed home. 

The medical court, with its practical illustrations of what can 
be done in this direction for the heathen, must have come with 
surprise to many, and must have given a more comprehensive 
view than is generally taken of the complete work of delivering 
the Gospel message, which includes within its scope not merely 
the salvation of the soul, but the emancipation of man's body 
from needless pain and suffering, and from the misery of pre- 
ventable disease. 

The Japanese receptions were especially popular, and very 
strikingly showed the tact and patience which are needed by the 
missionary in dealing with a polite and gifted people, who, with 
all their versatility and attractiveness, are still strangers to the 
light of God's love in Jesus Christ. 

The lime-light lectures, upon different parts of the mission- 
field, were full of instructive matter, and were largely attended, 
and the sacred concerts helped to release a little the tension of 
feeling which the exhibition as a whole was calculated to produce. 
But the picture would be incomplete without some reference to 
the well-organized Sale of Work, which was conducted in an 
adjoining room; fourteen stalls, tastefully draped, exhibited the 
industry and energy of the various parishes throughout Bristol 
and the neighborhood. For months previously, many hands and 
brains had been steadily at work, and to all these parishes, to- 
gether with their friends and workers, and specially to some 
of the poorer parishes of our city, the thanks of every well-wisher 
of the missionary cause are due. Such quiet, unobstructive, sus- 
tained and united work, cannot be without its reflex blessing on 
all concerned. Nor should we forget the ability and energy with 
which the refreshment department was administered, meeting as 
it did with a surprising elasticity the ceaseless demands which 
were made upon it. 

Our only source of regret has been that the exhibition was of 
such short duration. Had it been possible to have prolonged 
it, we might have reaped still richer results, and we might have 
avoided the disappointment which we are sure some of our 
friends must have experienced by the over-crowding of the rooms, 



250 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

but this could not have been anticipated, and if it had, with the 
limited space at our disposal it could scarcely have been avoided. 
But the great lesson of our exhibition is undoubtedly this: 
Bristol, and the neighborhood, has received an immense amount 
of additional information upon the present condition and needs 
of foreign missions; with this information there is inseparably 
connected a weighty responsibility; we can no longer plead ig- 
norance, the veil has been lifted ! and we know something of the 
cruelty, the degradation, the corruption, and the hopeless despair 
which exists in the heathen world. 

The suggestions, made years ago, having thus been 
proven feasible and practicable by experiment, may again 
be urged with deeper conviction of their importance. What 
is there to hinder such a series of Missionary Loan Ex- 
hibits in America, wherever a fit place may be secured ? A 
permanent Missionary Institute is about to be estab- 
lished in the city of New York, open at all hours of 
the day and evening, where parents may take their children 
and find both recreation and instruction in that greatest 
of enterprises — a world's transformation. Many devoted 
friends of missions have missionary curiosities and relics 
which they would gladly lend for occasional exhibits, or 
better still, contribute to such a permanent missionary in- 
stitute. We know of one man who has a considerable 
and valuable collection of curios, illustrative of life in 
Japan, India, China, Palestine, Africa, etc., which he 
would place in a missionary museum as part of its equip- 
ment. In connection with such an exhibit there might be 
at stated hours stereopticon exhibitions of slides, care- 
fully selected, and constituting a most attractive educative 
aid, with addresses and lectures on missionary topics. The 
best and most recent maps, charts, and other aids to 
knowledge would naturally find a place in such an exhibit ; 
and a building permanently used for these ends, would 
come to be a place of habitual resort, and to the young 
especially a sort of missionary college. 



STIMULATION OF MISSIONARY ZEAL 251 

Anything is worth attempting if we may increase 
knowledge of facts. The field of missions Is still a terra in- 
cognita. A leading philanthropist of Britain confessed 
himself to have been ignorant of the great leading facts 
of missionary history, and the bulk of disciples have 
yet to embark on their first voyage of discovery. 
But to those who will set out to explore, a new world 
waits to unveil itself. 

In the Indian department of the Glasgow exposition 
were not merely pictures and photographs, but models of 
native habitations and dress, Hindoo temples, the car of 
Juggernaut, the Suttee pile, and various modes of torture, 
etc. Such methods of reproducing or representing facts 
to the eye have the effect of actual travel in making ob- 
servers familiar with the fields of mission labor. And the 
materials are so abundant! 

The Foreign Missionary Conference, similar in aim and 
character to the World's Missionary Conference of 1888, 
was held in New York in the month of April, 1900, and 
furnished a most fitting opportunity for such an exposi- 
tion of missions especially as the nineteenth century, now 
drawing to a close, has been marked by such a triumphant 
career of missionary evangelism. 

Let us imagine a building suitable for a grand permanent 
exposition of missions. In the Burma section, there might 
be represented the Schway Mote Tau Pagoda, with its idol 
shrines and superstitious wild men as it was in 1825, and 
confronting it, the Kho-Thah-Byu Memorial Hall with its 
reverent service of worship, its intelligent classes of pupils, 
and its various accessories for Christian service — the me- 
morial of fifty thousand Karen converts, living or dead. 
In the department of the islands of the Sea, the thousand 
cannibal ovens of the Fijians — the chiefs' huts built on 
piles around which human beings were buried alive — the 
chiefs' canoes launched over living human bodies as rollers 



/ 
252 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

— on the one side; on the other the thousand Christian 
churches, and still more numerous Christian homes where 
the voice of family worship may be daily heard, and the 
floating bethels where seamen learn of Him who came not 
to destroy men's lives but to save them. In the African 
department might be exhibited the refuse from slave ships, 
gathered at Sierra Leone, as found by W. A. B. Johnson 
in 1816, with no communication but that of vice and no 
cooperation but that of crime; and that same community 
as organized into a model Christian state within seven 
years after. Madagascar might be contrasted, as at the 
coronation of Ravanalona I. and of Ravanalona II. The 
first Malagasy who ever learned the alphabet of his own 
native tongue died less than twenty years ago, aged 
seventy-two. He had lived to see fifty thousand of his 
countrymen taught to read, and over seventy thousand 
profess their faith in Christ. 

Tahiti might be represented, as during the " long night 
of toil," the missionary amid a group of savage cannibals 
seeking to get a lodgment for that sacred little Gospel, 
John iii, 16; and Tahiti, after the love of God had taken 
hold on the people, and that first convert of 18 14 became 
leader of a host now numbering a million! and, of hun- 
dreds who have gone forth as evangelists, not one has yet 
proved recreant or faithless ! 

Zululand might be exhibited, as when the naked savage 
comes to the mission house to trade for a calico shirt, or, 
worse still, when the cruel Dingaan slaughtered a hundred 
girls as the equivalent for the penalty exacted from a hos- 
tile tribe, one thousand head of cattle ; and Zululand with 
its Christian households, its eloquent native preachers, its 
self-denying weekly offerings to send the good news far 
and wide, and its self-governing, self-supporting, and self- 
propagating churches. 

What a department might the Bible societies themselves 



STIMULATION OF MISSIONARY ZEAL 253 

stock with their more than four hundred transla- 
tions ! Think of these great missionary agencies, avera- 
ging over three new translations for each year of the cen- 
tury! For nearly each year one new language without 
alphabet, grammar, or lexicon, has been reduced to writing, 
and a literature created out of nothing ! " Walk about 
Zion, tell the towers thereof, mark well her bulwarks .con- 
sider her palaces/' What cathedral towers are those so- 
cieties that lift the word of God in all these tongues to such 
a lofty height ! What bulwarks these aggressive activities, 
whose offensive warfare against the powers of darkness are 
the best defensive measures for the church at home! 
What palaces are those praying assemblies, where the 
King Himself abides, and where the spirit of missions 
constitutes a court of Christ! 

Of course, the greater proportion of Gospel triumphs 
defy tabulation or visual demonstration. The aggregate 
number of converts from heathen lands, during the century 
is not far from ten to fifteen million at the least, and prob- 
ably would reach thirty million if complete statistics could 
be gathered. Who shall ever write out that secret history 
of self-denying love, exemplified in thousands like the ob- 
scure Chinese convert who sold himself as a coolie in New 
Guinea for the sake of close contact with his unsaved coun- 
trymen, and who shortly led over two hundred of them to 
Jesus? The reflex influences of missions can not be ex- 
hibited. When irreligion and infidelity seemed folding the 
Church in the fatal embrace of an arctic winter, it was the 
new missionary era that broke the charm of this deadly 
stagnation and congelation. 

But if some results cannot be exhibited, there is no rea- 
son why we should not avail ourselves of what may be 
shown vividly to the eye. In the Crystal Palace at Syden- 
ham, modern enterprise built, on a scale of one-third the 
actual size, Assyrian palaces, Egyptian rock tombs, Greek 



254 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

and Roman temples, Alhambran and Pompeian halls and 
chambers, medieval cathedrals, so that the visitor might 
in a walk of half an hour actually see three thousand years 
of successive civilizations reproducing their marvels. In 
the Egyptian museum at London, vast galleries and corri- 
dors are assigned to the huge tablets, sculptures, sarcoph- 
agi, vases, papyri, etc., gathered from the buried cities 
of the East. And in Paris a few years ago, in the " Nou- 
velle Bastile," the old demolished fortress prison was re- 
erected, tho only for a season, to gratify transient visitors. 

In connection with the International Exposition in Glas- 
gow, in 1888, was a vast building, a quarter of a mile long, 
filled with twenty-five classes of industrial products. Ag- 
riculture and horticulture, mining and engineering, both 
civil and naval ; machinery of the most colossal and compli- 
cate, as well as of the most minute and delicate character ; 
cutlery and arms, carriages and other wheeled vehicles; 
the most recent and improved methods and devices for illu- 
mination by oil, gas, and electricity ; textile fabrics of won- 
derful variety and delicacy; food and cooking utensils; 
paper, printing, and book-making; furniture and decora- 
tion; fishery, pottery, and glass; jewelry and plated ware; 
shipbuilding, with a profuse display of exquisite models; 
nay, even the subtler sciences and fine arts — physical train- 
ing and education, chemistry, and philosophy, music and 
painting, and sculpture and architecture — all these and 
much more besides found there exhibition and exposition. 
A new world was unveiled in the single department of wo- 
man's work, the arts and industries at which she presides. 
The field, represented in this garner of abundant harvests, 
was well-nigh world-wide. England, Scotland, Wales, 
and Ireland, Canada, France, India, and Ceylon — all 
helped to make this International Exposition one of the 
world's wonders. 

It is high time that Christian believers showed some 



STIMULATION OF MISSIONARY ZEAL 255 

such spirit of enterprise in behalf of the cause of God. 
Those who are familiar with the history and literature of 
missions, feel themselves to be walking through the corri- 
dors of a colossal exposition. They see a lamp more won- 
derful than that of Aladdin banishing the death shade and 
transforming the whole aspect of heathen communities, — 
the simple Gospel displacing rags with robes, vice with 
virtue, filth with cleanliness, ignorance with intelligence, 
cruelty with charity, — the magician's enchantments out- 
done by the miracles of the Holy Spirit. Facts, properly 
exhibited, will outshine the fables of Oriental fancy. 
There is an architecture that is sublimer than " frozen 
music ; " the structures which missionary heroism has built 
up are the temples of God, their timbers more fragrant 
than cedar, and within and without they are overlaid with 
the gold of the upper sanctuary. 



CHAPTER XX 

DEVELOPMENT OF UNDENOMINATIONAL MISSIONS 

God's working, like His works, bears the stamp of in- 
finite variety and versatility. His Spirit can not be con- 
fined within narrow limits or arbitrary restraints, but, like 
the mighty wind, bloweth whencesoever and whithersoever 
He will, and no man can say or do aught to control His 
sovereign and majestic movements. God's working obeys 
law, but it is a higher law than that which man's methods 
prescribe, and a holy humility becomes us as we study the 
spiritual history of the race; for the true criterion of judg- 
ment is not whether a measure is conformed to human no- 
tions, ancient customs, or established precedents, but 
whether it is of God, whether it bears the mark of His lead- 
ership and sanction. For if it be of God, man can not 
overthrow it, and in opposing it may haply be found even 
to fight against God. 

For a half century there has been a steady increase of 
Individual and Independent Missions — enterprises under- 
taken outside of the denominational channels, sometimes 
starting with an individual, or a few like-minded disciples, 
but generally in some sense a new departure, and in con- 
trast with the older, commonly accepted, and approved 
ways of carrying on mission work. As might be expected, 
many of these have exhibited no grace of continuance, and 
have soon died a natural death. But others have proved 
so vital, so energetic, so successful as to compel recog- 
nition, and some of them have threatened to revolutionize 
existing methods by the conspicuous signs that they are 
conformed to God's mind. 

256 



UNDENOMINATIONAL MISSIONS 257 

Independent enterprises are not necessarily antagonistic 
to the older and more prevalent methods, but they may be 
only supplementary. The ball and socket in a perfect joint 
are exactly opposite to one another, but that is a condition 
of their mutual adaptation : they are counterparts. There 
is not only room for all sorts of methods in a world-wide 
work, but all sorts of methods are needed for all sorts of 
men. The round peg needs the round hole and the tri- 
angular peg needs a hole as angular as itself. It is simple 
folly to contend with people who would like to work in 
their own way, and to condemn their way as peculiar. It 
was a great monarch who, after trying to make a dozen 
watches run exactly alike, gave it up in despair, but it did 
not need a great man to reach this sensible conclusion that, 
if machines can not be made to move precisely in unison, 
the human machine is far less likely to be subject to such 
uniformity. 

God made no two men exactly alike, and the beauty of 
His work is, that it has a particular place and sphere for 
every worker, into which that worker fits with predestined 
precision. If there be unity in essentials, there not only 
may be diversity in non-essentials, but such diversity is a 
help and not a hinderance to the final result, for it allows 
every human instrument full play for its perfect and pe- 
culiar adaptation to the working out of the will of God. 

There are advantages, undoubtedly, in the older estab- 
lished forms of mission enterprise. Antiquity is not al- 
ways a sign of excellence — for, as Cyprian says, it may 
be vetustas erroris — the old age of error. But commonly 
in Christian service there is a survival of the fittest, and 
what lasts and outlasts, has usually some secret of vitality. 
The common way of doing mission work is by " Boards of 
the Church/' with their " secretaries " and other ma- 
chinery. Representative men, clerical or lay, or both, are 
chosen to represent denominational interests, and secre- 



258 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

taries to be the direct channels of correspondence with the 
field. This is a wise business arrangement, with two 
classes of helpers — administrators and agents — those who 
on the one hand undertake the general work of administra- 
tion, and others who on the other hand come into closer 
contact with the field and the laborers, study their mutual 
adaptation, and superintend the work directly. Thus the 
wisdom of wise men in counsel and the energy of practical 
men in action are combined happily and effectively. And, 
when the wise men are not too cautious, or the practical 
men too energetic, so that the boards and the secretaries 
do not pull together, this is probably as safe an arrange- 
ment as human sagacity can dictate. Sometimes boards 
have proven so conservative that they put on the 
brakes even when the road was all up hill, or secre- 
taries so progressive that they used the whip even when 
the grade was down hill. But allowing for such excep- 
tions, the denominational method has proved on the whole 
very effective in carrying on missions. 

And yet, there are some serious drawbacks, even where 
boards do not hamper secretaries and secretaries do not 
harass boards. Let us grant all the advantages of a 
large denominational backing, of long existing and 
approved methods, and of the promise of permanence. 
Let us freely concede that, when a great Christian 
denomination undertakes mission work as a body, 
the work is likely to be more thorough, more last- 
ing, more far-reaching; likely to command more general 
support, to be kept within safer lines, to be conducted with 
more denominational comity, so as not to collide with other 
branches of the Church; likely also to put in the field 
workers, better trained, more scholarly, more fitted to 
grapple with the problem of missions and to furnish more 
competent translators, educators, leaders of the host. But 
are there no manifest risks run in the " Board " System ? 



UNDENOMINATIONAL MISSIONS 259 

There is no doubt that denominational societies are often 
" hide-bound " by conservatism and ecclesiasticism — tim- 
idly over-cautious, and hesitating and vacillating in cases 
where a holy boldness and goaheadativeness is the only 
hope of success. Boards and committees often lack au- 
dacity. Mr. Spurgeon once said to me, "The best working 
committee is a committee of twenty-one, which entrusts all 
business to a sub-committee of three, of which one member 
is sick and another is out of town ; then you get something 
done ! " And he added, " Have you never noticed that you 
may take seven men, any one of whom will give you a wise 
and prompt decision if you consult him alone, but when 
you constitute them into a committee or board, they act un- 
wisely, afraid to decide, sluggish to move, even where all 
hangs on quick work? " Sometimes in a great emergency 
a church board has delayed, waited to discuss, and finally 
adjourned without doing anything, all seemingly afraid 
of doing too much or doing something unwise, when any- 
thing was better and wiser than to do nothing ! Or, how 
often again, when old methods fail and a new way promises 
well, has a board clung to the old with its failure, instead 
of giving the new a chance, where at the worst it could 
only fail? Of all fetters what are more rasping to a di- 
vinely quickened soul than the iron bonds of ecclesias- 
ticism, that, by undue jealousy for churchly traditions hin- 
der the success of the work of God ? There are some peo- 
ple who would hesitate to throw a plank to a drowning 
man, unless they first knew to whose ecclesiastical lumber- 
pile it properly belonged, or in what theological planing- 
mill it had been smoothed down ; people who would let mil- 
lions die without a hearing of the Gospel message, rather 
than that they should hear it at the lips of one who was 
not in the " apostolic succession," or had not been trained 
in some peculiar denominational shibboleth. 

Sometimes church boards are arbitrary and even des- 



260 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

potic, full as much so as any one man who keeps matters 
unduly in his own hands. Has there never been an auto- 
crat at the secretary's table, who has dictated unreasonably 
and unrighteously to missionaries thousands of miles away 
in matters about which they had far more knowledge and 
capacity than himself? In one case, known to the writer, 
a secretary demanded of missionaries a course of conduct 
that, if followed, would have been disloyal to Christ and 
dishonorable to man, and he made compliance a condition 
of continuance and maintenance on the field! Mission- 
aries on the ground should be far more independent of 
home control than they often are, and far more of the 
actual administration of the work and distributing of 
money in the work should be left to them, who are actually 
in the very center of the activities of missions, and are 
more competent wisely to settle many such matters. 

There are also both advantages and disadvantages in in- 
dependent, individual, and undenominational mission en- 
terprises. Their main justification is this, that they supply 
a channel for putting at work many who will not in any 
other way come in active contact with the field, and that 
they enlist the sympathy and cooperation of many who 
for some reason or other do not approve of the ordinary 
methods or do not work through them. 

The reluctance of some people to send their money 
through the boards, they explain by the fact that they do 
not believe in the expense attending administration, even 
when economically conducted. They maintain (unrea- 
sonably, perhaps), that all secretarial work may be done 
and should be done gratuitously, and that there are men 
and women who would gladly serve God in this sphere at 
their own cost, like that prominent secretary of one of the 
greatest missionary societies who never received a penny 
for his services, preferring to do his work gratuitously. 
Another man who is the actual conductor of a great mis- 



UNDENOMINATIONAL MISSIONS 261 

sionary enterprise, has never used a farthing, given for 
missions, for personal purposes. A poor servant maid, 
who saved twenty-five dollars to send the Gospel abroad, 
learned that it took a thousand such gifts as hers to pay the 
salaries of the good men who supervise the work, and in 
her ignorance she failed to see that her savings had done 
any good to the lost souls that she gave her money to help. 
It takes a mind more philosophical than hers to trace the 
gift, and see that what helps to maintain the pilot at the 
wheel, speeds the vessel and its cargo towards the haven, 
and so, in the long run, it pays to have salaried agents. 

Others conscientiously feel that the ordinary missions of 
the Church are not conducted on apostolic principles, and 
they crave a new. way that is in their opinion really the 
older way. Rev. J. Hudson Taylor is a deeply taught 
disciple, and we have seen how he felt convinced, in 1865, 
that God wanted a new enterprise begun for Inland China, 
on lines more primitive than those in general use. He 
especially felt that there was lacking a spirit of believing 
prayer, of dependence on the Holy Ghost, and of direct 
looking to God both for men and money; and he undertook 
the China Inland Mission especially to emphasize these 
three principles. Dares any one who has been watching 
its history for these thirty-five years now dispute that 
God's broad seal is upon his work? 

Independent missions have greatly multiplied, and are 
still multiplying. The philosophy underlying them we are 
now seeking to learn. No doubt one reason in God's mind 
for introducing these methods into His all-embracing plan 
may be that they afford opportunity for experimental trials 
of methods hitherto comparatively unused, as, for instance, 
industrial missions and colonization schemes, so that what- 
ever is valuable in them may be proven such, and intro- 
duced as features into older schemes. Wise men never 
stop learning, nor pursue their way in such blind con- 



262 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

fidence in their own infallibility, as to be unwilling to mod- 
ify and improve their methods. 

At a meeting held in connection with missions at North- 
field in 1897 — speaking of a missionary fund which it was 
proposed to raise to help volunteers into the field whom 
ordinary contributions might not suffice to send — Mr. 
Moody said : 

" I am in sympathy with the boards, and have no sympathy 
with the croakers. You cannot find a better set of men on this 
continent than those in the American board, or in the Presby- 
terian Board. We are in hearty sympathy with these regular 
boards. I think it is a great mistake to send any money outside 
of the regular hannels." 

Mr. Moody, however fully in sympathy with the 
Boards, no doubt believed there are many organizations 
" outside of the regular channels " that God is greatly us- 
ing, and he certainly could not have meant that all who 
differ from the established methods, or encourage these 
outside agencies, are to be put down as " croakers ". There 
is one man whose heart was so moved by the needs of Ko- 
rea, that he sent out and supported at his own cost several 
missionaries to the Hermit Nation; yet he also recently 
gave liberal help to lift the enormous debt of the Baptist 
Board. Pastor Harms was so moved by the appalling des- 
titution of a dying world, that he turned his own church of 
poor peasants into a missionary society, sent out hundreds 
of missionaries, and set up scores of stations in unoccupied 
territory. Was his work illegitimate? Yet he not only 
had his own society and missions, but his own mission ship, 
mission magazine, and mission training-school. The 
eighteen Christian centuries furnish no more startling ex- 
ample of the Spirit's leading, and of the possibilities of 
service, than this Hermannsburg Missionary Society, 
working entirely outside the previously used channels. 



UNDENOMINATIONAL MISSIONS 263 

Henry Grattan Guinness represents an independent society, 
which has for more than a quarter century been carrying 
on a grand missionary training-school, has founded the 
Livingstone Inland, and Kongo Balolo missions in Africa 
on a very extensive scale, and is now undertaking to evan- 
gelize the neglected continent of South America. Mr. 
Moody himself encountered some little criticism by his in- 
dependent working outside the regular channels. The 
Training Institute at Chicago was regarded by some as 
diverting students from the theological seminaries, and 
hurrying into the field at home and abroad, some who 
have never had full training. Yet this grand work at Chi- 
cago is only another proof that God has room for many 
forms of working in His plan, that may not be perfectly 
regular according to man's notions. 

But we cannot afford to sanction any undue irregulari- 
ties. If mission work is carried on independently of the 
ordinary denominational methods let it be carefully 
guarded from all abuses and perversions, lest it forfeit 
public confidence and the right of continuance. And it is 
in no censorious spirit that we now calmly but candidly 
state some of the defects or disadvantages of these inde- 
pendent ways of working. 

(1) The fundamental risk is that such enterprise shall 
center unduly in one man, and revolve about his per- 
sonality. 

Human nature is not yet sanctified enough to risk put- 
ting too much power in one man's hands. What modestly 
begins as a private venture of faith and prayer, may, when 
it grows to unexpected proportions, become a public ca- 
lamity by the autocratic and despotic way in which it is 
conducted. While its originator was almost its sole sup- 
porter it might be allowable that he should be its sole di- 
rector. But as others become active participators in the 
work and its support, they should have a voice in its con- 



264 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

duct. This is God's corrective for the peril of the despot- 
ism possible even to the religious autocrat. 

(2) Workers should not be hurried into the mission 
field without any proper preparation. But the standards 
of fitness are not always scripturally chosen. There is a 
natural demand for educated preachers and teachers, and 
they are needed nowhere more urgently than in foreign 
lands. But two things must not be forgotten : first, that 
there is much work that can be done by comparatively un- 
educated people, as in a war effective fighting is often done 
by raw recruits as well as trained veterans. Many a man 
can follow who can not lead. And again, we must not for- 
get that God's standard of education is different from 
man's. He has His own school, and some are deeply 
taught in God's university who never were graduated at an 
earthly college. To be taught of the Holy Ghost makes 
up even for bad grammar, and poor logic is more than 
compensated by the demonstration of the Spirit. The his- 
tory of missions shows some ignominious failures on the 
part of some of the most conspicuous scholars, and as 
glorious successes on the part of some others, who knew 
little Latin and less Greek. 

(3) Another danger quite as obvious, is that of giving 
money impulsively and wastefully to irresponsible, incapa- 
ble, or even fraudulent parties. A letter has been received 
from a most intelligent and devoted missionary, lament- 
ing that, notwithstanding repeated cautions, good Chris- 
tian people in England and America continued to send 
money to a man who pretended to be doing mission 
work in the East, but whose whole career was suspicious. 
He says : 

" I lived in the same place with this man, off and on, for 
three years, and during that time frequently saw him and 
his family, and my connection with the field and people 
gives me opportunity of judging. Our opinion, and the 



UNDENOMINATIONAL MISSIONS 265 

opinion, I believe, of all the resident English in that field 
is that the work of this man is most unsatisfactory, and not 
by any means what he professes it to be. I have passed 
his house constantly, not only daily, but often many times 
in a day, and I have never seen his much-talked of in- 
quirers entering and leaving his house. He has undoubt- 
edly linguistic gifts, which ought to make him a most use- 
ful missionary, but, to speak candidly, I believe he makes 
practically no use of them. ( 1 ) If a man repeatedly tries 
to become connected with evangelical missionary societies 
— a man who has many gifts which should make him a val- 
uable agent — and after inquiry these societies refuse to em- 
ploy him, must there not be something wrong? (2) If 
a man tries to run a mission on his own account, collecting 
all the money, not responsible to any committee, ' can he 
possibly carry on satisfactory mission work?' I have not 
the slightest grudge, but I honestly believe his presence 
here is rather a hindrance than a help to mission work." 

Apropos of irresponsible missions, we extract from The 
Missionary Herald a letter, with the brief comments upon 
it. The whole matter is one of such gravity, and so bear- 
ing upon Christian work, both at home and abroad, that it 
should receive most careful attention. 

" There has recently appeared in several papers of India and 
Great Britain a letter addressed to the Christian churches of Great 
Britain, Australasia, and America, prepared by members of the 
Madras Missionary Conference, calling attention to a matter 
which seems to them most serious. It is signed by a large num- 
ber of members of various missionary societies, and also by a 
number of native Christians in the Madras district. The letter 
will explain itself, and we give it entire, commending it heartily 
to the attention of all Christians in the United States. 

" Dear Brethren : — Of recent years several Indian Christians 
from South India and Ceylon have either visited your churches 
in person or have issued appeals by letter, and by these means 
have collected considerable sums of money for the purpose of 
carrying on different forms of mission work in this country. 



266 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

These persons were for the most part workers in connection with 
the various churches or missionary societies, but in most cases 
their actual connection has ceased. They have issued their ap- 
peals in their own name, and the work which they have initiated 
and profess to be now carrying on is not under the control or 
oversight of any one except themselves. The actual work carried 
on in most cases bears but a small proportion to that set forth 
in their appeals as what they propose to do. 

" The interests of truth and righteousness demand that these 
facts should be stated, and in view of the injury they have 
already done, and the still greater injury they are calculated to do 
to the cause of Christ in this land, we can no longer keep silent. 

" These appeals are a source of grave moral danger to those 
who make them, for they have to administer large funds without 
the safeguard of the control of others, and are thus exposed 
to a strong temptation to employ for private purposes money in- 
tended for public use. They are injurious to the cause of missions 
in those countries from whence the funds come, for certainly 
sooner or later the contributors will find out that their gifts are 
either not being used for the purposes for which they were made, 
or that the work carried on is very disproportionate to the funds 
expended. Distrust will thus be excited, which will extend even 
to undertakings where the proper use of the funds is adequately 
guaranteed. With some of the evils which these appeals produce 
in this country we are already too familiar. One of these is 
their tendency to demoralize the Indian community. The idea 
is abroad among a certain section of that community that an 
Indian Christian has only to go with a specious plea to Great 
Britain, Australasia, or America to obtain large sums of money 
from persons who will not inquire too closely as to how their 
gifts are to be used, and who, if they see their contributions 
acknowledged in a printed subscription list, will be satisfied that 
they are being properly spent. 

" In order to check such evils, resulting from appeals by irre- 
sponsible individuals, we would respectfully suggest that contri- 
butions should only be given to those who are able to give guar- 
antees, first, that they are the accredited agents of a responsible 
committee of persons who reside in the immediate neighborhood 
where the proposed work is to be done ; secondly, that the special 
object for which money is solicited is distinctly approved by that 
committee; thirdly, that accounts will be rendered to all sub- 
scribers, giving not simply lists of subscriptions and donations 
received, but also a balance-sheet duly audited, showing that the 
moneys received have actually been spent upon the objects for 
which they were given. We are convinced that no cause which 
is really good will suffer by the exercise of these precautions, as 
those who plead for such causes will have no difficulty in giving 
the guarantees required." 

Signed by T. P. Dudley, Secretary of the Madras Christian 
Conference; by N. Subrahmanyam, barrister, and by seventeen 
others. 



UNDENOMINATIONAL MISSIONS 267 

It is possible that there might be a combination of sev- 
eral of the now existing independent missions in one or- 
ganization. Some such plan has been proposed in London, 
and may be put into execution. It is suggested that a 
general society be formed, having in charge various unoc- 
cupied fields, such as Tibet, South America, the Sudan, 
etc., and that all undenominational and independent mis- 
sionary enterprises be invited to enter into this united or- 
ganization, without interference with the special methods 
and principles of each, but as a guarantee to the public that 
there is proper supervision, fidelity in management, and 
integrity in the use of funds. Rev. F. B. Meyer, James 
E. Mathieson, Esq., and other prominent men have been 
proposed as the committee to represent this united society. 
Could such a method be adopted, might it not greatly re- 
lieve the present situation ? 

What is here written would be misinterpreted if con- 
strued, as, directly or indirectly, an attack on the " boards," 
or established agencies which represent the various 
churches of Christ in the work of missions. It is suffi- 
cient proof that no such motive actuates the writer, that he 
has always both advocated, and cooperated with, the reg- 
ular church methods, so long in operation. The object in 
view is, not to criticise or to condemn any existing system, 
whether denominational or independent ; but calmly to con- 
sider, and carefully to weigh, both the advantages and de- 
fects of all methods, so that whatever is good may be con- 
served, and whatever is undesirable may be avoided. If 
we have indicated any dangers that threaten the working 
plans of the Church, it is only in hopes to increase their 
efficiency. Infallibility pertains only to God, and men 
often learn quite as much from errors and failures, as from 
their best endeavors and most triumphant successes. We 
invoke blessing on all who honestly seek to advance the 
cause of missions. 



CHAPTER XXI 

INDEPENDENT MISSIONS — CONTINUED 

Wendell Phillips was recognized as one of the fore- 
most of American orators. There was especially notice- 
able about him a marked ethical momentum. No other 
phrase so well expresses it. Momentum is the product 
of the mass of matter by the velocity of movement. When 
he spoke on great moral questions, he carried his auditor 
with him by an oratorical force, into which entered two 
grand elements: first, a noble, strong, weighty manhood, 
back of the speech ; and second, a rapid, onward movement 
in forcible argument, intense earnestness of emotion, and 
lofty purpose, all facilitated by simplicity of diction and 
aptness of illustration. 

This American Demosthenes had gone through the 
temptations to early dissipation which a rich young man 
confronts, and developed a great moral character, which 
constitutes him one of the noblest figures in the history of 
New England. 

An interesting fact is related of his youth. 

One day, after hearing Lyman Beecher preach, he re- 
paired to his room, threw himself on the floor, and cried : 
" O God, I belong to Thee! Take what is Thine own. I 
ask this, that whenever a thing be wrong it may have no 
power of temptation over me, and whenever a thing be 
right it may take no courage to do it." " And," observed 
Mr. Phillips in later years, " I have never found anything 
that impressed me as being wrong, exerting any tempta- 

268 



INDEPENDENT MISSIONS 269 

tion over me, nor has it required any courage on my part to 
do whatever I believed to be right." 

What a key to a human life ! In that supreme hour his 
higher moral nature, with God's help, subjugated his lower 
self; and for him, henceforth, there was no compromise 
with animal passion, carnal ambition, selfishness, cupidity, 
or any other debasing inclination ; they were " suppliants 
at the feet of his soul." 

The supreme motive both to holiness and service is 
found when any man or woman can say from the heart, 
" O God, I belong to Thee! " and no other impulse is proof 
against all worldly argument and temporary discourage- 
ment. 

We are now to look still further at some of those un- 
dertakings which aim at the rapid evangelization of the 
world, but for some reason have cut loose from the ordi- 
nary denominational and corporate methods. Some of 
these are operating in North Africa, South America, Ko- 
rea, etc. — but one — the China Inland Mission — stands out 
conspicuous, and may be taken as an example of all, as it is, 
perhaps, entitled to outrank the rest, both from priority in 
time and scriptural simplicity of method. Its history, now 
put into a printed record, deserves careful perusal by those 
who would more minutely look into one of the most roman- 
tic, heroic, and inspiring chapters which modern missions 
has added to the unfinished " Acts of the Apostles."* 

When the history of this enterprise covered little more 
than a quarter century, already its stations were scat- 
tered over an area continental in extent; its missionary 
force numbered nearly 700, with about 350 native help- 
ers, — a total working force of about 1,000 — reporting 
about 250 stations and outstations, over 5,200 communi- 
cants, and 18,000 adherents, having added 850 in the year; 



* " Story of the China Inland Mission." Geraldine Guinness. F. H. Revell 
Co. 



270 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

66 schools, with 880 pupils, and an income for 
the year of nearly 170,000 dollars. Interdenomina- 
tional from the first, and now international, it has. given 
such ample scope for testing the practibility of the princi- 
ples which underlie it and the methods which it advocates, 
that there is a certain obligation to examine candidly and 
carefully into its annals, that we may see how far God 
may be behind it, teaching us all some great lessons. 

Its founder, Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, himself asserts that 
" the firm belief in the plenary and verbal inspiration of 
God's Word lies behind the whole work ; it is assumed that 
His promises mean exactly what they say, and that His 
commands are to be obeyed in the confidence that ' all 
things are possible to him that believeth/ " He adds : " a 
personal experience of more than forty years has grow- 
ingly confirmed this confidence, and has shown us ever new 
directions in which to apply it. We were early led to trust 
the Lord to supply pecuniary needs in answer to prayer, 
and then to obtain, in the same way, fellow workers and 
open doors; but we did not learn, till later, what it is to 
' abide in ' Christ, and to find spiritual need all met, and 
keeping power through faith in Him. More recently the 
infilling and refilling with the Holy Spirit has taken a 
place among us, as a mission, that it had not before ; and 
we feel that we are still only beginning to apprehend what 
God can do through little bands of fully yielded, fully 
trusting, overflowingly filled believers. 

" Thus we have come to value missionary work, not 
merely for the sake of the heathen, but also as a spiritual 
education for the missionary, who, in the field learns, as 
never at home, to find Christ a living, bright reality ; nor 
is the education confined to the missionary, but blesses also 
the beloved ones at home, who, having ' nothing too pre- 
cious for the Lord Jesus/ have given up their dearest and 
best, and who share in their hundred- fold reward. Such 



INDEPENDENT MISSIONS 271 

prove that it is indeed ' more blessed to give than to re- 
ceive/ and the whole church at home is not less blessed 
than the heathen abroad."* 

This testimony of the founder of the China Inland Mis- 
sion we give thus fully, because he is entitled to be heard 
in explanation of his own course, and in interpretation of 
the history inseparable from his personal convictions and 
endeavors. It will thus be seen at the outset, how em- 
phatically the brief sentence which opens this chapter may 
be written over this whole work : " O, God, I belong to 
Thee!" 

God demands on the part of His true servants, a perfect 
and perpetual surrender unto Him, without reservation or 
limitation. We take Him, as He takes us, once and for 
all, or not at all. He will not consent to be made a liar by 
our disbelief, to be dishonored by our distrustful experi- 
ments, or to accept our self-offerings under any conditions 
as to service or suffering, sphere of labor or length of 
time. We are to give ourselves to him beyond recall, and 
bear the self-surrender in constant remembrance. These 
conditions are not arbitrary or unreasonable, but are the 
necessary and indispensable requisites to a true consecra- 
tion. God can not receive us, we can not become His, in 
any other way or on any other terms ; and above all must 
such surrender prepare us for any large, spiritual, success- 
ful mission to a dying world. We may well afford to 
study the history of any work which is conspicuously 
blessed of God, and discover if possible the secrets of such 
blessing and success. 

In the autumn of i860, Mr. Taylor came back to Eng- 
land, after seven years of absence in China, years of 
strange providential preparation for the great enterprise he 
was to launch. At this time no definite thought of at- 
tempting any such stupendous work as the evangelization 

* The italics and capitals are Mr. Taylor's. 



272 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

of Inland China had yet entered his mind. To go even one 
hundred miles inland implied a long and perilous journey; 
and, with notable exception of Rev. Griffith John and 
Mr. A. Wylie, the far interior had never yet been pene- 
trated with the Gospel. 

But on the wall of Mr. Taylor's room hung a large map 
of China, and when his eye fell upon it, eighteen populous 
provinces stood out, in deep black, as all enveloped in a 
darkness that might be felt. And from that map he turned 
to the Book, which said " Ye are the Light of the world; " 
and the question would recur constantly: There a mid- 
night ; here the Sun of Righteousness ; how may that Sun 
be made to shine in that night? Mr. Taylor and his col- 
league, Mr. Gough, could not rest without laying this 
whole matter before the Lord, and they found them- 
selves on their knees pleading that somehow God would 
drive away that awful darkness by sending forth His light 
and His truth. In two of God's choice saints, Mr. and 
Mrs. Berger, a symphony of desire and prayer was found ; 
Mr. Taylor's pen began to burn with his message, and 
by degrees the zeal of God more and more controlled 
him. 

On the other hand, he could not but see that the church 
as a whole was slumbering while the world was dying. 
Dr. Duff's sentence : " We are playing at missions," 
seemed to describe only too aptly and awfully that trifling 
with the great problem of a world's redemption, which al- 
lows fifteen hundred millions of people to perish, three 
times a century, and two-thirds of the whole number with- 
out even knowing that Christ died for them ! At that time, 
after 1,800 years of Christian history, eleven vast interior 
provinces of the Celestial Empire, had not one resident 
Protestant missionary. In China alone, at least one-tenth 
of the whole race were dying without Christ, or even the 
opportunity of hearing the Gospel. He felt the conviction 



INDEPENDENT MISSIONS 273 

grow that some new and special agency for the evan- 
gelization of Inland China was needful, which should dare 
to trust God for both the open door into the heart of the 
Kingdom and for the men and money to do the work. 

A question now arose in his mind: God has given me 
light, and light means responsibility. I see the need 
clearly ; why not go ahead and trust God to work out His 
designs through me? The thought had a grip on him 
and would not let go. It was early in the year 1865, when 
this conflict began to be intense in his soul, and unbe- 
lief was battling with faith, and self-distrust with confi- 
dence in God for the victory. Sleep almost fled from his 
eyes. The sense of bloodguiltiness for the million a 
month who were dying in China, was both a load on his 
heart and a goad to his conscience. And, on June 1st, at 
Mr. Berger's chapel, he appealed for intercession with God, 
that suitable men and means might be furnished for the 
evangelization of these destitute eleven provinces. But 
at this time Hudson Taylor had not got to the point 
of self-surrender as himself one of this new band — not to 
say as the leader. 

An invitation to rest for a few days at Brighton, brought 
him to an unexpected crisis of decision. It was Sunday, 
June 25, 1865, and the church bells rang. But Mr. Taylor; 
could not go to the place of public prayer, for the over- 
whelming shadow of China's need rested on him also, and 
he could not forget that, while these assemblies of disciples 
were gathered in their superb sanctuaries, rejoicing in their 
ample privileges, and heedless of the heathen, more than 
one thousand souls in China would pass into the unseen 
world, Christless. His agony of soul drove him to the 
beach, where he could walk and talk with God, looking out 
on that wide sea — the fitting symbol of the awful ocean of 
eternity, which was swallowing up all these vast millions 
while its unrippled calm was undisturbed by their doom. 



274 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

On those sands, this humble man, alone with God met 
the crisis of his life. " God can give the men to go to China, 
and God can keep them there ; " this was the voice that 
spoke to him. The decision was made : " Thou Lord shalt 
be responsible for them, and for me, too." The burden was 
gone. Hudson Taylor first gave himself to the Lord for 
China, and then asked for those who should go with him: 
twenty-four in all — two for each of the eleven provinces, 
and two more for Mongolia. On the margin of his Bible 
he at once wrote down this brief sentence, which remains 
the simple record of that momentous transaction with the 
God of the covenant: 

"Prayed for twenty-four zvilling, skillful laborers, at 
Brighton, June 25, 1865." 

Mr. Taylor was at this time thirty-three years old — as 
his Lord was, when He went to the Calvary where He 
bore our sins. The plan of the China Inland Mission 
slowly took shape. It must be wholly according to the 
mind of God, for otherwise prayer would lose its power to 
claim blessing. The mission must therefore be: 

1. Interdenominational — Catholic, evangelical, and so 
both inviting and embracing all sympathetic disciples who 
were willing to cooperate. 

2. Spiritual. — No intellectual, social or personal ac- 
complishments ; no wealth, rank or position, could atone 
for the lack of a thoroughly spiritual type of character in 
the workers and the administrators. Educational advan- 
tages, tho not to be despised, must be supplemented by 
gifts and graces of the Spirit. 

3. Scriptural. — Debt must never be incurred. No regu- 
lar salaries could be pledged, for this implies an assured 
and definite income. Whatever God gave, would be used 
as given, for the work and the workers, and only those who 
were prepared to accept this basis would be accepted. 

4. Voluntary. — The supply both of men and women, 



INDEPENDENT MISSIONS 275 

and of means, must be through free-hearted self-offering 
and offerings of substance. Appeals to be avoided as tend- 
ing first to undue dependence on human effort; second, 
to impulsive and unconsecrated giving ; third, to diversion 
of attention from God as the supplier of all need. Appeals 
to men dishonor God, and mislead men, for they imply that 
God is unduly dependent on human gifts. Hence it was 
determined to make no collections in connection with the 
mission meetings, but leave the hearer to contribute after- 
ward as mature thought and prayer might dictate. 

5. Prayerful. — Literally full of prayer. The noontide 
hour, then given up to a household meeting, at the throne 
of grace, for China, and the Saturday afternoon larger 
meeting for the same purpose, set the key to the concert of 
prayer that for a quarter of a century has never failed. 

A short sentence of twenty-four words expresses what 
was felt to be the supreme need : " to get God's man, in 
God's place, doing God's work in God's way, for God's 
glory." " God alone is sufficient for God's own work." 

Another twenty-four words embody what God seemed 
to say to Mr. Taylor as in an audible voice : " I am going to 
open Inland China to the Gospel: if you will enter into My 
plea, I will use you for this work." 

These were the days when conventions were beginning 
to be held for promotion of spiritual life, but the missionary 
appeal was seldom heard in them ; and just then Mr. Tay- 
lor found himself in Perth at the annual conference. He 
himself had been a beloved fellow-worker of William 
Burns, and this happy link gave him access to the leaders 
of the conference; and he asked that he might say a few 
words for the Middle Kingdom and its needy provinces. 
This was the surprising response : " It is quite out of the 
question ; you surely misunderstand ; these meetings are 
for edification ! " Persistence again prevailed, and Mr. 
Taylor got a chance — twenty minutes only — at the morn- 



276 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

ing meeting. Doubly shy, because his native timidity was 
intensified by the reluctance of the permission given, he 
rose, stood silent a moment, unable to begin, and then 
quietly said : " Let its pray/' Five minutes of his twenty 
were taken up in getting boldness from God to use the 
other fifteen for China and China's Savior. That lifted the 
load, and he first told of a drowning Chinaman and the in- 
difference of bystanders to his fate ; then, like Nathan, ap- 
plied his parable, and said : " Thou art the man ! " And 
so Hudson Taylor began his convention work. And where 
is the conference that now would not welcome him? 

As the days came when the actual bearing of the bur- 
dens of this new mission began to bow down the backs 
of those who had undertaken it, at times it seemed as tho 
a horror of deep darkness was upon them. What if, after 
all, money were not forthcoming, and workers should be 
starving in Inland China, and the whole work become a 
by-word of derision and reproach ! The last day of the 
year, 1865, was set apart as a day of fasting and prayer. 
Each one of that little band of praying souls sought to 
keep in such close harmony with God, that the symphony 
of prayer might be music in His ear as well as in their 
own. And, as of Jacob at Peniel, it may be written : " and 
he blessed them there." So conspicuous was the bless- 
ing received that day, that December 31st has been for 
twenty-five years the annual prayer and praise feast of the 
mission both abroad and at home. 

From this point on, also the history of the China Inland 
Mission seems to those who have watched its whole course, 
like the footsteps of God. On February 6, 1866, special 
prayer was offered at noon that the Lord would graciously 
incline His people to send in from £1,500 to £2,000 to meet 
the expenses of the outgoing party of ten brethren and 
sisters who had offered to accompany Hudson Taylor. On 
March 12th following, before the first printed statement 



INDEPENDENT MISSIONS 277 

of the work was in circulation, over 1,970 pounds had come 
in unasked, save of God. The need was more than met be- 
fore the want had been made known to the Christian public. 

Thus early in the mission this lesson was taught and 
learned, that if there were less pleading with man and re- 
liance on man, for money, and more pleading with God, 
and dependence on His Spirit, to guide in the work and to 
deepen the spiritual life of God's people, the problem of 
missions might find its solution. During this whole subse- 
quent history it has been found that God has met every 
special need by a special supply, and that when the special 
need ceased, so did the supply. The whole party that first 
sailed May 26, 1866, numbered twenty-one, including chil- 
dren. 

On May 2, before sailing, Hudson Taylor spoke on 
China at Totteridge near London, and it was thought to 
be a mistake that he declined to have any collection taken 
at the meeting. His host, the chairman, had remonstrated 
against his not striking while the iron was hot, but Mr. 
Taylor quietly assured him that he wished to avoid the 
impression that the main thing wanted was money, and 
added that, if there was a true self-surrender, all else 
would follow. His host next morning acknowledged that 
he had passed a restless night ; that if he had had his way, 
the collection would have been taken, and he would have 
put in a few guineas ; but that further reflection and prayer 
had satisfied him that such gift would have been only an 
evasion of duty, whereupon he handed Mr. Taylor a check 
for 500 pounds sterling. 

The voyage to China on the Lammermuir was itself a 
mission to the unsaved ; twenty of the crew found the Sa- 
vior, and among them, some of the most unlikely at the 
first ; in fact, the opposers all came over. But the voyage 
was not without trials. Two typhoons struck the vessel, 
even the sailors gave up hope, and the life-belts were got- 



278 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

ten out in readiness for the worst. But God wrought de- 
liverance from shipwreck — a type of many other deliver- 
ances, all His own. A subscription of more than 120 
dollars from the officers and crew was a sufficient witness 
to the fact that God had been with this mission party on 
the outgoing voyage. 

These pages are not the place for extended accounts. It 
was marvellous, however, how needs and supplies exactly 
corresponded, in amounts of money and fitness of time, 
so that another motto was suggested : " God's clocks keep 
perfect time." 

The year 1867 opened with united prayer, that God 
would extend and advance the work, and closed with the 
opening of the great city of Wan-chow to the Gospel, 
Siao-shan, Tai-chau, and Nan-King, having also been 
occupied. The number of stations had doubled, and the 
border had been crossed into Kiang-su province. 

The little band had to face the risk of death in the Yang- 
Chow riot, but God kept them in the midst of great perils, 
and showed himself their avenger also; for all those who 
were concerned in that outbreak, singularly fell into trou- 
ble. The prefect and his son lost their lives, their property 
was pillaged, and the family reduced to beggary; the dis- 
trict magistrate, the whole family of one of the chief 
inciters of the riot, and the leader in ruffianism became 
infamous ; so that the people feared to join in any further 
violence against those whom God so defended. 

When Mrs. Taylor died in 189 1, and his partner in 
prayers was no more on earth, Mr. Taylor said to the 
Lord : " Be Thou my partner in supplication, as well as 
my High Priestly intercessor," and another step was taken 
in fellowship with the Great Friend, who said : " Lo, I am 
with you alway." 

The gradual opening of Inland China to the Gospel, and 
the growth and influence of woman's work in the far in- 



INDEPENDENT MISSIONS 279 

terior; the itinerary preaching that covered 30,000 miles 
in two years, through regions beyond, hitherto almost un- 
visited ; and especially that most memorable prayer-meeting 
for seventy neiv workers within three years; the faith that 
took God at His word and turned that prayer-meeting into 
one of praise in anticipation of answered prayer, and the 
glorious answer that followed long before the three years 
expired — the story of " the hundred " given in the year 
when the mission reached its majority — all this, and far 
more, we have to pass by without further reference. The 
work has now included America, Europe, Australia in its 
scope, and embraces councils in five lands, which send out 
and support their own representatives. 

To only one more thing we tarry to call attention : It is 
to the careful and admirable -financial system of the China 
Inland Mission. More than one promising scheme has 
been wrecked, losing public confidence by mismanagement 
or arbitrary and irresponsible use of its funds. Those who 
sustain a work have a right, first to know what is done with 
the money given, and then to some voice in the conduct 
of the work. There is a great risk of autocracy in the 
Lord's affairs. Sometimes a man with whom a new be- 
nevolent enterprise originates, either determines to keep the 
whole matter in his own hands, or does it without delib- 
erate design. His head becomes its office and his pocket its 
treasury. The work enlarges and the constituency of sup- 
porters grows correspondingly, but he continues to be the 
factotum. His judgment is the final court, perhaps the 
only court of appeal. He gives no account to anybody, 
and, even without the loss of faith in his honesty, faith is 
lost in his wisdom, charity, and respect for the rights of 
his brethren ; until, by and by, the work itself can longer 
prosper only as it cuts loose from connection with him. 
We have seen at least seven such forms of good service 
split on this rock of autocratic management. 



2^o FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

Geo. Miiller, Hudson Taylor, and others like them, have 
had the sanctified common sense to see that, when a work 
develops, its management should broaden also — and so 
they have associated with themselves a competent council 
of sympathetic advisers. But especially is it noticeable 
how transparent the financial methods of the China Inland 
Mission are. Every penny given is first acknowledged to 
the donor or the parties through whom it comes, by a 
numbered receipt; then, in the published report, the amount 
is again acknowledged and can be distinguished by its 
number, so that every gift, large or small can be traced. 
There is no chance either for misappropriation of funds, 
or for their appropriation by the autocratic and independent 
head of the whole work who does as he pleases. Such 
transparent conduct of money matters inspires the full 
faith of the Christian public, and is partly the secret of this 
remarkable and unprecedented growth. 

The China Inland Mission is fallible and imperfect, and 
no doubt makes mistakes, but there are about it great at- 
tractions. 

Its founder has sought to impress on all connected with 
it, the need of humility. Spurgeon used to tell of a certain 
alchemist who waited upon Leo X. declaring that he had 
discovered how to transmute the baser metals into gold, 
expecting to receive a sum of money for his discovery. 
Leo was no such simpleton ; he merely gave him a huge 
purse in which to keep the gold which he would make. 
There was wisdom as well as sarcasm in the present. That 
is precisely what God often does with proud men: He 
lets them have the opportunity to do what they boast of 
being able to do. Not a solitary gold piece was dropped 
into that purse, and we shall never be spiritually rich by 
what we can do in our own strength. Be stripped of self 
confidence and be clothed with humility; and then God 
may be pleased to clothe you with honor ; but not till then. 



INDEPENDENT MISSIONS 281 

Dr. Payson said : " The most of my sufferings and sor- 
rows were occasioned by my unwillingness to be nothing, 
which I am, and by struggling to be something." 

Another fundamental principle constantly impressed on 
all these mission workers is absolute .absorption in God, 
without which there is no real dependence on Him or con- 
fidence in Him. How often one recalls the sublimity of that 
quiet resolution of President Edwards : " Resolved, that I 
will do whatsoever I think to be most for God's glory and 
my own good, profit and pleasure, on the whole, without 
any consideration of the time, zvhether now, &r never so 
many myriads of ages hence?" This is surveying and 
laying out a track through eternity ! And the deeper and 
more quiet the solitude, the better it will be done. Such 
absorption in God is the only basis of an unchanging 
fixedness of purpose, our will being both lost and saved in 
union with His, losing its own carnal wilfulness and gain- 
ing His divine energy. Hear Sir Thomas Fowell Bulton: 
" The longer I live, the more I am certain that the great 
difference between men — between the feeble and the pow- 
erful, the great and the insignificant — is energy, invincible 
determination, a purpose once fixed on, and then death or 
victory. This quality will do anything that can be done 
in the world ; and no talents, no circumstances, no oppor- 
tunities, will make a two-legged creature a man with- 
out it." 

Once more the China Inland Mission seeks to im- 
press the great law of fellowship with God in His work. 
Hence comes the confidence that He will supply both men 
and means. Let the old story of " A Loan to the Lord," 
teach us a lesson in its quaint way. A poor man with an 
empty purse came one day to Michael Feneberg, the godly 
pastor of Seeg, in Bavaria, and begged three crowns that 
he might finish his journey. It was all the money Feneberg 
had, but as he besought him so earnestly in the name of 



282 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

Jesus, he gave it. Immediately after, he found himself 
in great outward need, and, seeing no way of relief he 
prayed, saying : " Lord, I lent Thee three crowns ; Thou 
hast not yet returned them, and Thou knowest how I need 
them. Lord, I pray Thee, give them back." The same 
day a messenger brought a money-letter, which Gossner, his 
assistant, reached over to Feneberg, saying: " Here, father, 
is what you expended." The letter contained about 200 
thalers, or about $150, which the poor traveler had begged 
from a rich man for the vicar ; and the childlike old man, 
in joyful amusement, cried out : " Ah, dear Lord, one dare 
ask nothing of Thee, for straightway Thou makesf one 
feel so much ashamed!" 



CHAPTER XXII 

INDIVIDUAL LINKS BETWEEN GIVERS AND THE MISSION 

FIELD 

A practical problem now occupying the wisest and best 
minds, is, how to secure, from cheerful givers at home, a 
hearty and unfailing support for workers abroad, or on 
the borders of civilization in the home land. Great as is 
the need of sending a larger force to the field, the question 
pressing just now, with tremendous weight, is how to keep 
the laborers already in the field, and prevent disastrous re- 
trenchment. On every side, and in every direction, grand 
undertakings are at risk. Debts, so enormous as almost to 
wreck boards representing home and foreign missions, and 
deficiencies so crippling to all aggressive action as to com- 
pel retrenchment instead of advance, have caused a chronic 
alarm and apprehension that are paralyzing to all hopeful 
enterprise. It is only great faith in God that dares take 
one step forward- and onward when the work presents such 
an aspect and prospect. 

Devout souls stand in the presence of such a crisis with 
the deep conviction that it is both needless and shameful. 
There are both money and piety enough to remedy all 
these evils and supply all these deficiencies, were the money 
and the piety only made available. In nature, power and 
energy have always been present, but not always properly 
applied. And so the connecting links seem somehow want- 
ing between Christians at home and the work and workers 
abroad. Dr. Thomas C. Upham has said, * that there is in 

* Life of Faith. 300 p. 

283 



284 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

every commonwealth, " a conservative body of men who, 
in their freedom from passion, can estimate the just claims 
of truth, and, in the strength of moral and religious prin- 
ciple, will at all hazards do what is right." And hence, 
" when great constitutional and moral questions are at 
stake, the results have generally been favorable to law 
and truth, in consequence of the accession, at the precise 
moment of danger, of those of all denominations of per- 
sons, who, in their devotion to rectitude of principle, have 
declined to recognize the coercions of party discipline, and 
who constitute the genuine ' Imperial Guard ' or ' Mace- 
donian Phalanx/ who strike only at the moment of im- 
minent hazard, and whose moral strength renders them 
invincible/' 

The Church of God is the hope of all good enterprises, 
and within its sacred inclosure is the very " Body-guard of 
the King" — a company of prayerful, intelligent, consecrated 
men and women, sufficient in number, efficient in faculty, 
and withal not deficient in either sympathy for holy activ- 
ity or in self-sacrifice for its promotion ; and, if this body 
of saints could be brought into vital touch with the work 
of missions, money and workers would be continually 
forthcoming; there would be alike men in the field and 
" meat in God's house." It is the link of connection that is 
lacking. The majority of disciples know little of the wants 
of the field, and so feel little the needs and claims of the 
work. Their minds and hearts, consciences and sym- 
pathies, have not yet been really enlisted. If any impres- 
sion has been made, it has been occasional and incidental, 
and hence the response has been spasmodic and impulsive. 
But in them lie the latent possibilities of vast increase in 
all that aids the best enterprises of the Church — the motor 
which needs only proper machinery to connect it with the 
work. 

When any temporal disaster, like plague or famine, 



INDIVIDUAL LINKS 285 

makes its appeal, money flows in streams, and sometimes 
in floods. The difference lies here : the appeal in the latter 
case is loud and strong, echoed by every newspaper, em- 
phasized in every sermon and public meeting for relief. 
The calamity that is present or threatening becomes every- 
where the current topic of conversation. There is no 
eluding its clamorous demand for help, and knowledge of 
facts kindles sympathy and sympathy loosens purse-strings 
and heart-strings. Can not the perishing millions who 
know not the Gospel, be so brought practically into prox- 
imity with the millions of disciples who really love the 
Master, and are ready to respond to His command and to 
their claims, as that a constant stream of consecrated gifts 
may be secured beyond the risk of all this uncertainty ? 

It is our deliberate, prayerful, and mature judgment, 
that no one thing would do more to secure a prompt, per- 
manent, and altogether unprecedented advance in missions, 
than the plan, now steadily growing in favor and in suc- 
cess — of supporting individual missionaries in the Held by 
individual con tributions. 

Nothing is more needed in all missionary aggressive 
enterprise than three grand conditions : Knowledge of the 
Held, sympathy zvith the worker, and prayerful interest in 
the work. When these are secured, gifts pour in without 
special appeals and without cessation. One method of 
supplying all these conditions readily suggests itself. Any 
man or woman of a family that is immediately linked to 
the missionary cause by the support of a missionary, wilj 
naturally come to know the field, to feel oneness with the 
worker, and to pray interestedly for the work and its 
progress. In Britain, hundreds of families, as such, sup- 
port one or more missionaries, in some cases one of their 
own number, and in others, of the church or denomination 
to which they belong. And in such cases there are uni- 
formly found an intelligence as to missions, a deep per- 



286 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

sonal sympathy with missionaries, an absorbing interest in 
the work and in the people among whom it is done, a high 
standard of giving, and a high level of praying, not com- 
monly met with under any other circumstances. 

For example a Scottish family — a poor family — gave 
one, two, three sons to missions. One of them became 
disabled, and his sister went and took his place, and two of 
the grandchildren followed — six from one house. Need 
it be said that in that household the standard of knowl- 
edge, zeal, prayer and giving, was very high? Another 
family — that of a Scottish knight — sent a daughter to 
India as a fully equipped medical missionary ; the effect on 
the whole family life was uplifting, and that family be- 
came itself a little missionary society, with all the condi- 
tions of success. Again a family — comparatively wealthy 
— resolved to give, pound for pound, and shilling for shil- 
ling, to the support of missionaries, the amount spent on 
home expenses. That house is the gathering-place of mis- 
sionaries and a school of missionary information. Both 
the husband and wife can discourse of missions in any 
part of the world with intelligence and power. There is a 
family in Liverpool, whose son is in India in the Civil 
Service, but himself practically a missionary. Letters pass 
to and fro, and in that home the condition, especially of 
Indian missions is known, and a habitual giving is founcl, 
which shows a world-wide sympathy. A family in London 
supports not one but many mission workers, wholly or in 
part, in various fields. A framed list of subjects for daily 
prayer is hung up in plain sight, and, as each new day 
comes, the subject for that day is conspicuous. Of course, 
giving is bound to go with such praying, and the husband 
and wife, each one the independent possessor of a fortune, 
have given up all hoarding of money that they may enrich 
others, and frugally avoid needless expense that they may 
have more to bestow.. That home is another missionary 



INDIVIDUAL LINKS 287 

training-school. Another family of eleven sons and 
daughters are all engaged in mission work of some sort; 
the city of London is their field. One of them is training 
for the foreign field and has offered himself; and there 
again all the conditions are met, high intelligence, earnest 
prayer, fervent sympathy, and habitual giving. Such ex- 
amples might be multiplied without limit. But these jus- 
tify and illustrate the principle, which is all that is needed. 

Before being confronted with such examples, the writer, 
in the year 1870, proposed to a church, of which he was 
then pastor, that the young men should form themselves 
into a missionary circle, and undertake to support a young 
man abroad. The proposal proved a seed in a congenial 
soil and took root. A number of the young men thus 
associated undertook the support of a young missionary 
just going to Japan and who spent years there as a mis- 
sionary and educator. Need it be said that the standard of 
knowledge, praying, and giving in that church rose to an 
uncommon level ? In 1869 the sum total of benevolent and 
missionary offerings reached about $1,800; in 1879 they 
reached about $18,000, for that church was one of the best 
organized in the country in the matter of its mission bands 
and societies, from the " Rhea Band " of the Sunday- 
school up to the adult organizations. 

In 1883 the writer settled in Philadelphia, as pastor of 
a large body of people, numbering in all from 3,000 to 
4,000, more or less closely identified with Bethany church 
and its great Sunday-school. After some few years of 
education in missions, taking up country after country and 
missionary heroes and heroines, etc., a band of several 
young people proposed to go out to some foreign field as 
a colony, and Hon. John Wanamaker offered a thousand 
dollars for the pastor to go and prospect and locate the field 
for the colony. It was then probable that the entire sup- 
port of this mission band would have been attempted by 



288 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

the church, as in Pastor Harms' church in Hermannsburg, 
so long before. The head of this proposed mission band 
was a young Welsh licentiate and his wife, others who 
offered being simple artizans and tradesmen. At that time 
there was presented to the presbytery a printed statement 
covering all the facts, and asking only for encouragement. 
It was most graciously received, and referred to a commit- 
tee to confer with the board ; and the result was that it was 
deemed by the board unwise to encourage any such inno- 
vation, and so the whole matter fell through. On calmly 
reveiwing the whole matter, there is no doubt that there 
would have been a large shrinkage had the theory been 
reduced to practice. Some of this proposing mission band 
would probably have " gone back " when the actual work 
was undertaken. No doubt much of the glamor of enthu- 
siasm would have faded away, like Ephraim's goodness, 
the morning cloud, and early dew. No doubt the con- 
servative policy of presbytery and the board had much 
worldly wisdom back of it. But, after all reductions and 
deductions have been made, it still remains true that, had 
that church sent one or more missionaries direct to the 
Held it might have become, with the generous and enter- 
prising business man who has from the beginning been 
practically at its head, one of the main feeders of missions ! 
Take the Presbyterian Church as one example of what 
could be done by the individual missionary plan. The 
board needs annually, let us say, $1,000,000 for the proper 
prosecution of its existing missions. It has all it can do 
to get this sum, tho it has a membership of as many souls 
as it asks dollars annually. Of course, if this amount 
could be equally and proportionately divided; if each 
member would give one dollar a year, one-third of a cent 
a day, the whole amount would be raised without any self- 
denial — tho that would be a damage rather than an advan- 
tage. But this result, simple as it is, can not be secured, 



INDIVIDUAL LINKS 289 

The bulk even of Presbyterian church-members give noth- 
ing ! What if out of the whole denomination five hundred 
churches could be found from Maine to California that 
would give $2,000 each to the support of a missionary 
abroad, keeping in touch with him by letters, studying his 
field, and praying habitually for his work? We should 
have the $1,000,000, with all the rest of the denomination 
left to work on for surplus amounts. Or, if 1 ,000 churches 
give $1,000 each, the same result is accomplished. 

In this vast membership of about 1,000,000 there are 
believed to be not less than twenty thousand millionaires. 
There are no less than two hundred and fifty men in this 
one denomination that represent an average of ten million 
each, or an aggregate sum of $2,500,000,000. How few of 
us know what that sum means ! If piled up, in five dollar 
gold-pieces, that aggregate wealth would reach three thou- 
sand five hundred miles into space! But, of course, mil- 
lionaires are not always or generally self-denying givers. 
But can not there be found 1,000 men or women in this 
whole Church that will each undertake, at the cost annually 
of $1,000, to support a missionary in the field? And what 
unspeakable advantage to the givers! What increase of 
knowledge of the field of work ! What increasingly sym- 
pathetic touch with the missionary and through him or her 
with all other fields and workers ; and what a stimulus to 
prayer, to giving, to personal consecration ! What has 
been shown to be possible in this one denomination is only 
an example of general possibilities if the Church of God 
were in dead earnest. 

Eighteen centuries have sped since our Lord gave his 
final commission. To-day there remain at least 800,000,- 
000 of human beings to be reached with the Gospel mes- 
sage. And of these 25,000,000 will die during each year, 
over 2,000,000 a month! At the present rate of mission 
progress the world will never be overtaken. In fact, at 



290 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

a time when every condition of the field demanded advance 
and every condition of the Church justified it, in seven 
out of ten missionary societies the decree went forth for 
retrenchment from twenty to twenty-live per cent! In 
other words, with the population increasing at the rate 
of 2,000,000 a month, and proportionately dying, the 
Church of Christ, that aggregates at least fifty million 
Protestant members with hoarded wealth that defies com- 
putation, instead of sounding the silver trumpet for the 
assembling of the camps and the forward march around 
the ark of the covenant, bids the drum of a worldly selfish- 
ness to beat an ignominious retreat; and we retire from 
positions, gained at the cost of blood and of treasure, and 
of lives given for Christ ; we actually surrender from one- 
fourth to one-fifth of our outposts and captured fortresses, 
and bid the foe once more sweep back upon the territory 
claimed and possessed for God ! 

And if one nowadays raises the cry of alarm, and thun- 
ders out a remonstrance ; if one declares that missions have 
never been in greater danger of utter collapse through this 
lack of adequate giving, the answer, from some fellow- 
believers, is ridicule, rebuke, stigmatizing epithets, such 
as " pessimist," " croaker/' etc. 

One grave consideration should be before us as to in- 
dividual responsibility. Untold disaster to Church-work 
has been entailed by the withdrawing and withholding of 
offerings on the part of those to whom the local church 
and the denomination have a right to look for financial sup- 
port. A church-member should have very solid reasons — 
reasons that would stand not only the scrutiny of an en- 
lightened conscience, but the searching inquiry of om- 
niscience — who treats with neglect, indifference, or con- 
tempt the mission work of the church and denomination 
to which such individual member belongs. A board, or 
other representative committee, is but an administrative 



INDIVIDUAL LINKS 291 

body. It sends missionaries to the field under the implied 
pledge of the church it represents, to stand behind it and 
to support them there; and to this implied covenant every 
church-member is a necessary party. To allow, the mis- 
sionary agency to be crippled by an empty treasury and 
half wrecked by debt, is something for which, therefore, 
every church-member is responsible, and will be held ac- 
countable by the Master of us all. 

This plan of thus directly connecting home churches, 
families, and individual givers with the mission field by 
these living and personal links, has been growing in favor, 
and having increasing proof of God's blessing, of late 
years. In connection with the Church Missionary Society 
of Britain, there are about 300 missionaries maintained 
by special gifts of individual donors, without prejudice to 
the general zvork, which is a very important fact. Other 
boards in this country are just now advocating a similar 
policy, encouraging individuals to give to the support of 
special missions and missionaries, while they carefully cau- 
tion such donors that they deem it unwise for such gifts 
to be limited to special objects in the mission field, as it has 
been found that interest is apt to decline, and support to 
be withdrawn, when such special object is no longer 
deemed advisable or practicable. * Of course, when gifts 
to missions are prompted by a truly Christ-like spirit, they 

* A pertinent example of this method of supporting a missionary, and of en- 
listing the sympathies of a church is furnished in the case of the late Dr. A. C. 
Good, who was sustained in his arduous work in Africa by the contributions 
of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Montclair, N. J. This church asked the 
board that they might assume his entire support and salary, and regard him 
as their special representative abroad. The arrangement resulted most 
happily. His relation to the board was unaltered thereby, and a particular 
benefit accrued, not only to that church, but to the Church at large ; for never 
before had he allowed himself to write such full, leisurely letters. The pas- 
tor, Rev. Orville Reed, testifies to the blessed influence of these letters on 
the church, in the real interest awakened in foreign missions, the warm at- 
tachment to the missionary, and the increase of prayerful giving. It was as 
tho the church had a second "pastor in Africa."— "A Life for Africa," pp. 
148, 149. 



292 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

will never be limited by too narrow a range of personal 
sympathies or individual preferences. The work is cos- 
mopolitan, and demands a cosmopolitan soul behind it — 
catholic, impartial love, universal sympathy and support. 
When it ceases to be wise to pursue any particular line of 
work, or to occupy any particular sphere of service, or 
when any form of effort obviously lacks the divine sanc- 
tion, consecrated gifts will not be withheld altogether, but 
only diverted to some wiser, better channel ; the work at 
large must never suffer because any local work fails to 
commend itself to our further approval and cooperation: 
otherwise we are moved by self-will and not the will of 
God. 

We commend for consideration the following sugges- 
tions : 

i. That every local congregation shall at once organize 
with reference to the support of at least one foreign mis- 
sionary, to be associated with its own church life and work. 
Some congregations can do more than maintain one; 
others may not feel equal to the support of even one, and 
such may associate with themselves one or more smaller 
churches. 

2. Let each family ask the question : Can we as a house- 
hold support a missionary abroad? Many a family that 
has never yet thought of such a thing as possible, will at 
once see that, by a small reduction of family outlay or by 
consecrating a certain percentage of family income, a mis- 
sionary could represent them abroad. 

3. Let every individual Christian solemnly ask and an- 
swer this question : Could I not this year support a mis- 
sionary ? There is a man — known to the writer — who is 
alone in the world and spends at least $10,000 a year for 
his own keeping ; another believer who pays $10,000 a year 
rent and has not a child or dependent ; another who spent 



INDIVIDUAL LINKS 293 

$25,000 in one year's travel ; another whose personal ex- 
penses are at least $15,000 exclusive of house rent; an- 
other who, with one child, spends $10,000 annually. There 
are others who retrench in every direction, cheerfully and 
habitually, in order to give, like that man who supports 
an entire mission with its six workers, paying outfit, trans- 
portation, salary, etc., out of his own pocket ; yet that man 
is not a rich man, but one of very moderate means, but 
who does business and makes money for Christ. 

Alas ! the Church of God as a body is still asleep, or, if 
awake, criminally apathetic and lethargic. And the Master 
of us all will have some day an awful reckoning with us for 
wasting His goods, and neglecting His scattered sheep, 
and disobeying His command. There is bloodguiltiness to 
be required of this generation. Let us abandon the work 
of missions altogether if it be not God's work and ours by 
His appointment. But if it be His work, then in the name 
of God and of Christ, and of the Gospel, and of Humanity 
let us do it, and do it with some such enthusiasm, prayer- 
fulness, generosity, sacrifice, giving of money, and giving 
of self, as the magnitude of the trust and the field, and the 
magnificence of the work and the reward, and the ma- 
jesty of the Divine King and Captain demand! 

The one thing which the Master is now pressing upon 
the attention of all His disciples who have ears to hear is 
the absolute necessity of remembering, as before God, their 
individual duty and privilege. He solemnly challenges 
every disciple to face three great questions, as one who 
alone is to give account of himself unto God. However 
we may hide here behind the mass, or lose ourselves in the 
crowd, at the judgment-seat of Christ every one of us, in 
awful aloneness, must confront these tremendous ques- 
tions : " Hast thou wasted my goods ? " " Hast thou neg- 
lected a dying world ? " " Hast thou shut thine hand and 



294 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

purse against thy needy and perishing brother man ? " And 
we need to meet these questions, now, with a practical an- 
swer which will stand this scrutiny, if we are not to be 
" ashamed before Him at His coming." 



CHAPTER XXIII 

MEDICAL MISSIONS: SAMUEL FISK GREEN, M.D. * 

Example incarnates argument; it is the word made 
flesh and dwelling among us. The theory and philosophy 
of medical missions are illustrated in the lives of medical 
missionaries, whose careers have silenced all objections 
and supplied irrefutable reasons for enlarged service along 
the same lines. We give one such example out of many, 
namely, Samuel Fisk Green, who from 1847 to I ^73> a 
period of twenty-six years, was identified with work in 
Ceylon. 

In his eighteenth year he found Christ and became a 
member of the Mercer Street Presbyterian church in New 
York. He inherited a leaning toward the medical profes- 
sion, and sundry influences swayed his choice, so that at 
the age of nineteen, he was studying medicine, and en- 
tered the college of physicians and surgeons. 

The experience of the dissecting-room was very re- 
pulsive to his sensitive nature, but he endured all that was 
necessary to his fitness for his life-work ; and the familiar- 
ity with the human body, which often leads to materialism, 
only called forth in him more reverence as it revealed the 
two grand arguments for a Divine design: First, the 
mechanism of every part, and second, the adaptation of all 
parts to the whole. Familiarity with suffering also, in- 
stead of hardening, softened him, and made him more sym- 
pathetic and tender. 



* See Life and Letters of Samuel Fisk Green, M. D. Compiled by Eben- 
ezer Cutler, D.D. 

295 



296 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

In March, 1846, he asked himself: " Why is It not better 
for me to go where I can be very useful, as well in my pro- 
fession as otherwise, at once — go to a land of darkness, and 
heal the bodies and enlighten the minds of some error- 
bound people ? " That question led to his self-offering for 
the field, and he was soon after under appointment to 
Ceylon, as a missionary of the American Board, and 
landed at Ceylon in October, reaching Battecotta shortly 
after, at the completion of his first quarter century. 

It was not a fortnight, before success in a surgical 
operation established him at once in the confidence of the 
Tamils. With insight, born of a thorough knowledge of 
the healing art, he discovered an abscess in the abdomen, 
and removed it. The patient was cured, and the fame of 
the new doctor spread through the peninsula. The natives 
began to talk about the miracle of this cure ; the new Eng- 
lish doctor " had taken out the bowels, adjusted them, and 
refixed them." He was a demigod at once, and, of course, 
people flocked to him from all parts. He remembered the 
deeper sickness that needed a divine physician, and, as he 
healed the sick, he preached the Gospel, seeking to apply to 
every patient the spiritual remedies of the Gospel. Even 
while yet using an interpreter he explained how all sick- 
ness is the ultimate fruit of sin, and often the immediate, 
penalty of violating God's laws. He distributed well- 
selected tracts, and so began his two-fold work for body 
and soul. 

In February, 1848, he was removed to Manepy, and 
there again " the people thronged him." At the temple of 
Puliar, a great festival begins about March 25th, and holds 
for three weeks. 

Dr. Green writes : 

On the second Sabbath of the festival, I saw, in the midst of 
the throng, a man rolling along on the ground, holding in his 
hands an offering — a little brass vessel of milk — under an arch 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 297 

trimmed with peacock feathers and painting; behind him an old 
religious beggar ringing a bell; before him another bearing some 
incense burning. The poor fellow rolled over and over, his 
black body whitened by the dust, for about half a mile and then 
around the temple. He had been sick and made a vow to do 
this. He got medicine, I understand, of me; but if mine did him 
any good he ascribes the virtue to Puliar; so I have been an in- 
strument, perhaps, of leading this man to serve the devil. 

This is an example both of the opportunities and diffi- 
culties which heathenism presented. To uproot growths 
of superstition, tradition, caste, and custom, which had 
rooted themselves for centuries, was a hard task, but Christ 
long since said : " Every plant which my heavenly Father 
hath not planted shall be rooted up." Nothing was more 
disheartening than the spiritual apathy about him. The 
people would assent to almost anything, and yet remain 
unmoved. Prayer must call down fire from heaven if 
such moral stagnation and self-complaisance were to be 
changed. 

By the autumn of his first year Dr. Green had two 
young Tamils as students of medicine, for he felt the need 
of a native force of helpers. After eight months he began 
to speak the Tamil, and a few months later could under- 
stand a sermon in the vernacular. He saw that his main 
business was to spread knowledge of salvation, and gave 
out tickets on which were printed not only health-rules, 
but Gospel truths — a synopsis of truths touching soul- 
health. 

Dr. Green was no idler. In thirteen months previous to 
January 1, 1848, 2,544 native cases had been treated, one- 
third or more of them surgical, including tumors, cancers, 
cataracts, strangulated hernia, amputations, fractures, etc., 
and not a few of these were major operations in point of 
critical and dangerous character, as when the left upper 
jaw and cheek bones were removed for a cancerous fungus 
in the antrum filling the whole mouth and left nostril. 



298 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

Some of the worst phases of heathenism were inwoven 
with the notions concerning the nature, causes, and treat- 
ment of bodily ills. Superstitions about the " evil eye " 
and evil tongue are numerous and deep-rooted. Fires were 
lit at junction of two roads to counteract the evil tongue. 
Praise might cause the party praised to be ill, and mango 
leaves, salt, red peppers, and the dust from the tracks 
of him who did the praising, must be used to undo the 
harm; the leaves waved thrice about the head, the salt, 
etc., rubbed on the body, then all these burned at evening. 
Cows were daubed with soot to keep off the evil eye, etc. 
Akusteer, a fabulous dwarf, a cubit high, is the famous 
medical authority, whose prescriptions are servilely fol- 
lowed. A famous practitioner in Manepy had been in 
practice forty-two years, yet had never known the differ- 
ence between arterial and venous blood, did not know that 
there was black blood as well as red, nor had he ever seen 
a vital organ. He thought the pulse to be the motion of 
air in the body. 

A sort of scapegoat idea was sometimes found prevail- 
ing, as when a mud image represents a sick child, and a 
ceremony about that image is supposed to cause the sick- 
ness to leave the child and enter the image. Horses' teeth 
and rhinoceros' horns are used as remedies. From a gold- 
smith's arm, who was down with fever, was taken a 
, charm, a gold tube, with which was a sheet of lead ruled 
off into forty-nine squares, and in this diagram were writ- 
ten several muntras, and under them a prayer to Siva. 
The swami (idol) is supposed to reside in this mystic seat, 
which is tied above the right elbow to chase away intru- 
ding demons. 

These and kindred superstitions Dr. Green felt it to be 
his mission, by a truly scientific treatment, to uproot, de- 
stroying the very basis of the native system of dealing with 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 299 

disease, and so delivering the people from the deceptions, 
delusions and cruelties of native doctors. 

Difficulties there were in treating disease. Even cholera 
patients would not always accept a physician's aid. 

Some fear to take medicine lest it offend their gods; refusing 
medicine and taking only the juice of the leaf of the sacred tree 
over Genesa's temple, mixed with water. They would rather die 
without medicine and take their chances with their gods in the 
unseen world than recover by the use of medicine, and encounter 
the malice of their gods in this world. 

He was sometimes asked to feel one's pulse through silk, 
so as not to impart pollution by his touch. A Brahman 
wished him to examine his wife's case without putting his 
fingers or instruments into her mouth. He met such de- 
mands sometimes by refusal to comply, and sometimes by a 
droll facetiousness which disarmed prejudice. 

A wealthy Moorman called to consult about his wife, who has 
apparently a mammary abscess. I suggested that he take a Lali- 
mer (a Tamil), and let him examine, and, if necessary, use the 
lancet. He could not consent; no one could be allowed to see 
his wife. I proposed that she be seated behind a curtain, through 
which the doctor could do the needful, but he would not agree. 

In Syria an American doctor insisted on at least examin- 
ing tongue and pulse, in order to prescribe for a pasha's 
wife ; and so a slit in the curtain was made, and a tongue 
and a hand successively thrust through, which, being 
normal, he found to be the hand and tongue of a maid. 
He was expected to examine his patient by proxy ! 

Early in the fourth year Dr. Green was recalled to Batti- 
cotta. He was having an average of 2,000 patients a 
year, and was giving religious instruction to nearly thrice 
that number annually. All his work as a medical man was 
anointed with the fragrance of prayer, and he sought to 
impress upon his patients that this was all religious work. 
He said of the removal of a cataract : 



300 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

This is, perhaps, the most delicate operation in surgery. Com- 
pletely successful. I scarce expected aught but failure; but the 
Great Physician guided my hand. 

When subsequently he undertook an operation which he 
thought too trifling to pray over, he failed in it ; and ac- 
cepted the failure as a lesson to show that, without God he 
could do nothing. 

To get any fair command of the Tamil tongue was to Dr. 
Green a preparation for providing a medical literature for 
the people in their vernacular — another hard task, for in 
science as in religion, the very mold of a heathen language 
is often so cramped and distorted as to make it well nigh 
impossible to express normal conceptions. 

He started a vocabulary, defining English and Latin 
terms in Tamil, as the basis, and planned some pamphlets 
on the more important branches of the healing art, with 
the Gospel on the reverse of every leaf — " a good backing " 
— for gratuitous circulation. These primers he carefully 
prepared, beginning with the most needful. He inspired 
and directed his students, so that they should both do good 
work and aid his own. 

In 1 85 1, a complete glossary for anatomy was made, and 
the Tamil medical dictionary was begun. The first work 
selected for translation was Dr. Calvin Cutter's work on 
" Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene," with cuts. And 
so the work was fairly on the way, which was to make 
European medical practice indigenous and ultimately dis- 
place the native system. In June, 1852, this first work on 
anatomy, etc., was ready for the press. It took three 
months of close attention to get the book out with its illus- 
trations, and in a week a quarter of the edition was disposed 
of and being eagerly read by the native doctors. 

From a census of readers among his patients, taken in 
1852, he estimated that, of the 432,000 inhabitants of the 
province, 132,000 were readers, of whom about 2,600 were 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 301 

women. In 1816 but one Tamil woman in the province 
could read, and this large increase of women readers was a 
prophecy of a time coming when female education would 
be nearly as universal in Ceylon as in England. 

At this time, as he had help in teaching, Dr. Green 
was able to meet the demand for practice at the homes of 
patients more than before. He studied and loved the 
people, and avoided no labor or sacrifice that would help 
him meet their needs. 

In 1854-5 cholera visited Ceylon, and the people fled be- 
fore it. A day of fasting was kept by all the missions in 
December. In the Jaffna district alone were reported for 
the year 8,000 cases, besides 2,500 of smallpox. But Dr. 
Green, tho never strong himself, was ever ready to help 
others, and was himself violently prostrated, causing in- 
tense anxiety. He took " medicine enough for a horse," 
and his recovery was like rising from the dead. 

During six months, in 1856, 1,032 patients were 
registered, and his literary labors were vigorously 
prosecuted. With aid from his munshi and Rev. Mr. 
Webb, of the Madura mission, he completed vocabularies 
for chemistry and natural philosophy, revised his work on 
obstetrics, etc. 

In 1857, ten years of service being completed, he took 
a respite from labor, leaving Ceylon for America. In a 
decade of years, he had so mastered the hard tongue as to 
preach in it directly from his English manuscript ; he had 
published tracts, laid the basis of a Tamil medical litera- 
ture, published two important works — translations from 
Cutter and Maunsell ; he had been connected with the treat- 
ment of over 20,000 patients, to whom, and as many more 
of their attendants, he had made known the Gospel reme- 
dies for soul-sickness. Twenty young men he had qualified 
for medicine and surgery, and some of them were teach- 
ing others, 



302 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

En route to America, he visited Edinburgh by invita- 
tion of the Medical Missionary Society, and drew up an 
outline of his views on medical missions, which is one of 
the best pleas for the combination of the healing art with 
Gospel work. In May, 1862, he again set sail, having mar- 
ried Miss Margaret Phelps Williams, in every way worthy 
of her husband; and in October they were welcomed in 
Manepy, where he gladly resumed his manifold activities 
as medical teacher and practitioner, evangelist, expositor, 
translator, editor, counselor and friend. 

Soon after he was asked to take the superintendence of 
the hospital connected with the " Friend in Need Society," 
and consented to make a trial of it for three months. He 
at once reorganized the work for greater efficiency and 
economy. Some idea of the surgery made necessary may 
be seen from one record of August 7th, 1863. 

Two Chank gatherers severely bitten by a huge shark. One 
has four bad, deep, large bites in his right thigh, and the other 
his right thigh bitten off, leaving as stump the upper third. We 
sawed off a bit of the bone which projected about three inches. 
Performed Simm's operation on an unhappy woman, and tapped 
a Moorman, making out a pretty good clinic for the thirteen 
students and three doctors present. 

Here, beside his other work, 8,000 patients were annually 
treated, the worst cases being attended to by himself, and 
all under his oversight. After three months' trial, he con- 
cluded God had opened before him this new and effectual 
door of service, and he continued as its superintendent. 

Meanwhile light so increased in Jaffna that the hea'd 
place of Siva was seen to be a den of infamy, and even the 
heathen began to demand reforms. All the Brahmans 
about that shrine were reported licentious and the temple 
was but partner to the brothel. 

He wrote of the Hindu religion : 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 303 

It is dovetailed into the whole social system. Astrologers must 
fix the day to build a house, and the propitious time for the 
thatching must come before the first leaf is tied on. In Batti- 
cotta women will, but men will not kill a centipede; for once 
a woman tried to poison her husband by soup, but a centipede 
falling into it stopped his eating it, and so defeated her malice and 
saved his life. 

What can be viler than the revered, sacred books 1 He who 
would faithfully translate Koo-rul into English would become in- 
famously famous; and sensual corruption pervades the very 
sanctum of idolatry. When heathenism sinks the Brahmans will 
sink with it, from deities to men. 

Dr. Green compares Indian false religion to a huge ban- 
yan with ten thousand branches, far-reaching and rooting 
themselves anew in every direction, and the missionary 
force that is sent forth to fell it, he likens to a few puny 
white boys with playing hatchets ! 

During the deputation's visit, and while they were about 
to ordain and install the first native pastor, the mission 
adopted, as part of the church covenant, a solemn renuncia- 
tion of caste. Within a month there were nearly one hun- 
dred signatures ; and Dr. Green's personal influence over 
his medical class led the members not only to Christ, but 
into His church, at cost of everything. 

During the ravages of cholera in 1866-7, ne found his 
hands full. Health handbills were issued, and tracts on 
cholera, and the commissioners of government publicly 
commended his tireless endeavors to abate the scourge. 
But he never lost sight of his greater work to save souls 
from the second death. 

In the summer of 1868, he summed up the results of the 
six years, since his return. He had led a class through 
two-thirds of their remaining course of medical study in 
English, graduating eight physicians ; and carried as many 
more through their whole course in the vernacular; he 
had trained three dispensers wholly in Tamil, and three 



304 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

more partially. He had made out six vocabularies^ and 
completed four others; carried one large volume through 
the press, and prepared another; secured three volumes 
in manuscript, soon to be printed, and five more in crude 
stage, besides all his guidance of work which others had 
done. 

Before the close of this year he was compelled to resign 
his hospital superintendency, in face of all pressure to re- 
main. The term of service begun for three months as an 
experiment had continued to twenty-two times that period. 

In the spring of 1869, Dr. Green was busy on the revi- 
sion of the Physician's Vade Mecum, the hardest revision 
work he ever undertook, the " translation being bad, and 
the subject obstinate," and not until fifteen months later 
was the work completed. His health was very frail, and 
disease threatened, but the impossibility of creating a pure 
literature for the Tamils without Western aid kept him at 
work, and he was already a leader in the creation of science 
in the Tamil tongue. His works, printed in that language, 
covered nearly 4,500 octavo pages. 

The place of medical literature in missions he both testi- 
fied and tested. For instance, he says of the use of certain 
cuts in Dr. Smith's anatomical atlas, in connection with his 
own work on anatomy : 

I regard a volume of this kind as most distinctively aggressive 
on Hinduism. There is a radical antagonism between the truths 
it will spread and the prevalent ideas here concerning the body. 
It should be shown that the body is the Lord's wondrous mechan- 
ism, and not the lodgment of divers gods, nor its various parts 
controlled by the constellations. With plenty and good illus- 
trations the book will be doubly useful. It will be as different 
from a non-illustrated volume as daylight from dawn. These 
will advance one item at least of missionary work far toward 
that desired state in which " the light of the sun shall be as the 
light of seven days." 

A prominent authority on medical missions, in Edin- 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 305 

burgh, wrote of Dr. Green that no then living mission- 
ary " had had such lengthened experience, or done so 
much to extend the benefits of European skill, by transla- 
ting and publishing a comprehensive medical and surgical 
literature in the South India vernacular, and by training 
native medical evangelists." 

His medical labors are not easily tabulated. Thousands 
first heard the Gospel at his lips, and who shall tell the 
outcome? He found at the seaside, and by seeming acci- 
dent, a blind woman who recognized his voice, and told 
him that, fifteen years before, she had fever and was healed 
at his dispensary, and that he told her about Jesus Christ ; 
and she added, " I have prayed to Him ever since, and have 
not worshipped idols." 

As another ten years since his resumption of work in 
Ceylon approached completion, his return to America 
seemed inevitable. During his two terms sixty-four had 
been trained in medicine (whereas only seven or eight had 
been, before his advent), and over half of these sixty- four 
in the vernacular ; and a class of twenty were well started 
before he left. He had produced eight larger works, be- 
sides the smaller, and four were yet in manuscript. His 
graduates were filling important positions, " studding the 
province," and the hospital he had conducted for five years 
and a half was now manned by them, and had more pa- 
tients than all the hospitals in the other provinces. 

When in September, 1873, Dr. Green and his wife and 
children reached the family home at Worcester, he did not 
cease to be a missionary. Translations and new composi- 
tions, correspondence, conversation, public addresses, and 
the constant persuasive fragrance of his personality, kept 
up the " apostolic succession." 

To Dr. Green had been born, between 1864 and 187 1, 
four children — three daughters and a son, and he did not 
forget these " olive plants " at home, but took untiring in- 



306 



FORWARD MOVEMENTS 



terest in their training, using as his helpers books and the 
world of nature, fauna and flora, with microscope and 
lancet, and above all the Bible, with rare fidelity to God's 
ideal, putting first what belongs first, not the mental or 
physical, but the moral and spiritual. 

Home rest slowly brought recuperation, and he hoped 
to return to work, and said, " Altho powerfully weak, we 
multiply half strength by tenfold demand, and get the re- 
sult of fivefold usefulness." 

In 1880, he took whooping-cough from his own children, 
which probably gave strength to a constitutional malady 
long preying on him; and, at noonday of May 28, 1884, 
with hope at its meridian, he passed into the life that knows 
no end. His last words were a benediction, and his last 
legacy a self-oblivious decree : 

I wish that my funeral may be conducted as inexpensively as 
may consist with decency and order. Let the exercises be simply 
to edification; and of the dead speak neither blame nor praise. 
Should I ever have a gravestone, let it be plain and simple, and 
bear the following inscription, viz. : 



SAMUEL FISK GREEN, 
l822-l884,* 

MEDICAL EVANGELIST TO THE TAMILS. 
JESUS MY ALL. 



* The last date, left blank, is supplied to complete the inscription. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

MINISTRIES TO THE SICK AND WOUNDED IN WAR TIMES 

The name of Florence Nightingale is inseparably con- 
nected with a new form of woman's ministry to man gen- 
erally, in a wide-spread movement for the reform of sani- 
tury conditions in the camp and campaign, of soldiers and 
sailors. 

She was an Italian by birth, being born in Florence, 
Italy, in 1823, of English parents. Highly educated, 
brilliantly accomplished, of refined sensibility, every inch 
a woman, and with none of the masculine traits, often 
associated with women of public action, God prepared in 
her a mighty force for the relief, and in fact reconstruc- 
tion of unhealthy and abnormal conditions in the British 
Army, and, through her success there, inspiring similar 
movements elsewhere. 

She early showed intense interest in the alleviation of 
suffering which, in 1844, at the early age of twenty-one, 
led her to give close attention to the condition of hospi- 
tals, so that, like John Howard, and Elizabeth Fry, who 
was called the Female Howard, she undertook a personal 
visitation and inspection of the civil and military hospitals 
all over Europe. She studied, with the sisters of charity of 
Paris, the system of nursing and of management in the 
hospitals, and in 185 1, at twenty-eight, herself went into 
training as a nurse in the institution of Protestant Deacon- 
esses, at Kaiserwerth on the Rhine. Thus qualified, on her 
return to her own land, England, she put into thorough 
working order, the Sanitorium for Governesses in connec- 

307 



308 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

tion with the London Institution. All unconscious of the 
wide work for the world and the ages for which God was 
thus fitting her, she had thus served a ten years' term of 
apprenticeship for the sublime and self-sacrificing career 
that lay just before her. 

In the spring of 1854, when she was in her thirty- 
second year, war was declared by Britain against Russia, 
and a force of 25,000 British soldiery embarked for the 
Golden Horn. The battle of Alma was fought on Sep- 
tember 20, and the wounded with the sick were sent down 
to the hastily improvised hospitals, made ready to re- 
ceive them on the banks of the Bosphorus. Crowds of 
men in every stage of sickness and suffering from wounds, 
unskillfully treated and still worse, neglected, were thus 
huddled together. How unsanitary the conditions were, 
may be inferred from the average rate of mortality. The 
hospitals were more fatal than the battle field, the ordinary 
casualties of the fiercest battle being insignificant in com- 
parison to the death rate in the wards. 

Dr. Hamlin well remarks that the Crimean war brought 
out both the noblest and basest attributes of human char- 
acter. There were Hedley Vicars among the officers and 
Dr. Blackwood among the chaplains, and his noble wife, 
Lady Alicia, and Florence Nightingale in the hospitals, 
who will forever stand out as exhibiting the glory of our 
common humanity and Christianity. But the same events 
gave opportunity to exhibit the meanest selfishness and 
sordidness. 

In the great hospital at Scutari, the severest sufferings 
were in the night. At ten o'clock p. m. the lights 
were put out and no one came near the sufferers until 
the morning. The night was made hideous and horrible 
by agonizing cries for water, groans of the dying, and 
ravings of the delirious. Dr. Hamlin offered Dr. Men- 
zies, the chief physician, his own help and that of a dozen 



MINISTRIES TO THE SICK 309 

or fifteen of his most trustworthy students, as night- 
watchers, but the proposal was not only rejected, but re- 
jected with asperity. He went further and applied to 
Gen. Posgaiter, commissary general, offering to organize 
a relief force of volunteer night watchers, from American 
and English residents, who would obey all the rules, sub- 
ject to Dr. Menzies' orders, undertaking simply to relieve 
the awful and needless suffering of the sick and wounded 
soldiers. When the commissary general forwarded Dr. 
Hamlin's note with his own, the only result was another 
repulse, the Doctor replying curtly, " We cannot admit any 
outside interference ; " and so thousands of brave suffer- 
ers were cruelly left to agony of thirst, torture of pain and 
even to death, in the darkness of a doubly unrelieved night. 

Of course, in such a hospital the conditions were all 
horribly unsanitary. The smell was like that of a dis- 
secting chamber, where corpses lie in all stages of putre- 
faction, nauseous in the extreme, and showing not only 
neglect, but downright incapacity on the. part of medical 
attendants. Dr. Menzies was finally removed and re- 
moved in disgrace. 

Dr. Hamlin tells also of the condition of things in the 
Kulelie hospital. The battle of Inkerman was fought in 
November, 1855, and a week or so later, the Himalaya, the 
huge English iron merchant steamer, was lying at Kulelie 
and two hundred and fifty wounded were in the cavalry 
barracks and some Russian wounded on the float wharf. 
Both the English and Russian soldiers' blankets were full 
of lice, and Dr. Hamlin says, " I picked off eleven of the 
most atrocious beasts I ever saw, from my woollen 
gloves." The English wounded had had no washing done 
for five months, for lack of wood and water; and their 
under flannels were such nests of vermin that they wore 
none, preferring to suffer from the cold. There was plenty 
of clothing but it could not be worn. Dr. Hamlin aj> 



3io FORWARD MOVEMENTS , 

pealed to the chief physician about the washing, but met 
only another surly reply, " it could not be done ;" and, when 
a way to do it was suggested, he damned Dr. Hamlin as 
an intruder, his dirty meerschaum hanging in the corner 
of his dirtier mouth. Dr. Hamlin then found the " sar- 
geant " of the clothing, who showed him a great hall where 
were piled up garments for a thousand men. The place 
was a plague breeder, unventilated, with beds and bedding 
and clothing, taken from the wounded and the dead, filthy 
and full of vermin, and such looking animals, overgrown, 
flat, hellish looking, their bite like that of a scorpion, irri- 
tating and maddening, producing fever heat and burning 
itch. Dr. Hamlin says that these vermin killed more men 
than the bullets. 

In despair of cleansing such clothing, a furnace was 
built to burn it. 

Florence Nightingale, with her nurses, appeared on the 
scene of the Crimean conflict and all was changed in these 
hospitals. She had many coadjutors and evinced large ca- 
pacity to deal with the conditions she found. One improve- 
ment followed another in rapid and glorious succession, 
until the hospitals became models of sympathetic care and 
sanitary provisions. The hideous nights of suffering were 
relieved and shortened by the tender sympathetic hand and 
heart of woman — all presided over by one woman, who 
combined in herself marvelous common sense, sound judg- 
ment, and intelligent Christian capacity. 

The crisis in the Crimea which led Florence Nightingale 
to offer herself as a missionary to the sick and suffering at 
Scutari, was one of what Dr. Croly called the " Birth 
hours of history." The reorganization of that nursing de- 
partment at Scutari meant a reform in all the treatment of 
sick and wounded soldiers and sailors in war times, and a 
permanent and world-wide advance in this department, 
even among semi-civilized peoples. 



MINISTRIES TO THE SICK 311 

Lord Herbert, then at the War Office, gladly accepted 
her offer, and within a week after, Miss Nightingale was 
on the way with her nursing corps. She reached Con- 
stantinople in November, 1854, just before the battle of 
Inkerman, and the beginning of the terrific winter cam- 
paign, in time to receive from that second battle the 
wounded, though the wards already had in them 2,300 
patients. 

History, poetry, and art have vied with each other fitly 
to represent the heroic devotion of that woman of thirty- 
one, to the sufferers from that cruel war. She was known 
to stand on her feet twenty hours at a time, without once 
sitting down, that she might personally see sufferers pro- 
vided with such accommodation and care as their condi- 
tion called for. The following spring, while in the Crimea 
organizing the nursing departments of the camp hospitals, 
she herself paid the penalty of her untiring toil and un- 
sparing self-sacrifice, in a prostrating fever. Yet she re- 
fused to desert her post of duty, recovered, and remained 
at Scutari until the British evacuated Turkey in July, 1856. 

How many soldiers owed to her life and health we know 
not, for of some facts no history has ever been adequately 
written. But the mental and physical strain told upon her 
naturally frail constitution. She, like her Master, saved 
others, but herself she could not save. She yet lives, but 
an invalid, withdrawn from public life into the quiet of 
her rural home — modestly shrinking, especially from the 
visits of the curious who would like to see the heroine of 
the Crimean hospitals; but still devising means for the 
improvement of the health of the soldier. 

In 1857, when a commission was created to inquire into 
" the regulations affecting the sanitary condition of the 
British Army," she supplied a paper of written evidence in 
which, with peculiar force, she emphasized the many 
lessons learned in the Crimean war which were char- 



312 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

acterized as a " sanitary experiment on a colossal scale." 
During her experience there, the results which accumu- 
lated under her own eyes, proved that, with proper pro- 
vision for food, clothing, cleanliness, nursing, and various 
sanitary conditions, the rate of mortality among soldiers 
may be reduced to one half of the average death rate in 
time of peace and at home! 

Such discoveries naturally fixed her mind on the gen- 
eral question of sanitary reform in the army, and first of 
all the army hospitals. In 1858, she contributed other 
papers, on Hospital construction and arrangement, to the 
National Association for the promotion of social science. 
Her Notes on Hospitals, clear in arrangement and minute 
in detail, are. alike valuable to the architect, engineer and 
medical man. Her Notes on Nursing is a text book in 
many a household. 

The results of her work in the Crimean war, prompted 
a fund to enable her to form an institution for training 
nurses — a fund which yields an annual interest of 1,400 
pounds sterling. No separate Institution has been formed, 
but the revenue is applied to training a superior order of 
nurses in connection with existing hospitals. 

How highly Miss Nightingale's opinions are held in es- 
teem even by the British government is evinced for ex- 
ample by one fact. When in 1863, the Report of the Com- 
mission on the Sanitary Condition of the Army in India 
was made in two folios of a thousand pages each, the 
manuscripts were forwarded to her for her examination, 
and her observations are inserted with the published re- 
port. In these observations and comments, there is such a 
masterly array of facts, such clearness of statement and 
such incisive force as render it one of the most re- 
markable papers ever reduced to written form, and it 
marks a new era in the government of India. 

As already hinted, the study of Miss Nightingale's 



MINISTRIES TO THE SICK 313 

career naturally suggests a comparison with the singularly 
parallel career of John Howard, who attempted his " cir- 
cumnavigation of charity " in the interests of the prison 
reform, and with that of Elizabeth Fry who, born ten years 
before Howard's death, in a remarkable manner took up 
and carried on at Newgate and other prisons of Britain, 
the work he began. It is another curious coincidence that 
each lived about the same period — sixty-five years. 

The labors of Miss Nightingale have led to the forma- 
tion of the Red Cross Association, which had its origin, 
nine years after the Crimean war called her to the scenes 
of oriental conflict, in a proposal made in February 1863, 
at a meeting of the Society Genevoise by Henry Dumant, 
who had witnessed the horrors of Italian battlefields, 
" whether it would not be possible in time of peace to form 
societies for the relief of the wounded when war should 
again break out " ? A committee appointed to examine 
into the matter called an International Congress at Gen- 
eva, in the autumn of the same year, and another general 
congress convened in Geneva in 1864, a * which sixteen 
European powers were represented, and the terms of a 
treaty were signed by twelve delegates and later by four 
others. The principal terms of this convention, were that 
in time of war the hospitals and all pertaining to them be 
considered as on neutral ground and wounded and sick 
soldiers shall be cared for, to whatever side they belong 
in the conflict.* 



♦Article I. Ambulances and military hospitals shall be acknowledged to 
be neutral, and, as such, shall be protected and respected by belligerents so 
long as any sick or wounded may be therein. Such neutrality shall cease if 
the ambulances or hospitals shall be held by military force. 

Article II. Persons employed in hospitals and ambulances, comprising 
the staff for superintendence, medical service, "administration, transport of 
wounded, as well as chaplain, shall participate in the benefit of neutrality 
while so employed, and so long as there remain any wounded to bring in or 
to succor. 

ARTICLE III. The persons designated in the preceding article may, even 



3 H FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

It was necessary, according to Article VII, to have a 
flag or sign to distinguish those laboring under the direc- 
tion of this organization. A red cross upon a white back- 
ground was chosen. This choice was for the purpose of 
honoring Switzerland. It shows the flag of that country 
reversed. 

In 1867, at Paris, the rules of the convention were ex- 
tended to naval conflicts also. The beneficence of the 
Red Cross Association was soon and very grandly proven, 
in the wars of 1864 and 1866 and subsequently in the 
Franco-Prussian, Russo-Turkish, American Civil War, 
America-Spanish War, &c. In the war of 1866, nearly 
14,000 Austrian wounded were cared for by the Prussian 
Society of the Red Cross, at a total expense of over a 
million and a half of dollars, and in the Franco-Prussian 
war the Red Cross had 25,000 beds in towns between 
Dusseldorf and Baden alone. 



after occupation by the enemy, continue to fulfil their duties in the hospital 
or ambulance which they serve, or may withdraw to join the corps to which 
they belong. Under such circumstances, when these persons shall cease from 
these functions, they shall be delivered by the occupying army to the out- 
posts of the enemy. They shall have the special right of sending a represen- 
tative to the headquarters of their respective armies. 

Article IV. As the equipment of military hospitals remains subject to 
the laws of war, persons attached to such hospitals can not, in withdrawing, 
carry away articles which are not their private property. Under the same 
circumstances an ambulance shall, on the contrary, retain its equipment. 

Article V. Inhabitants of the country who may bring help to the 
wounded shall be respected and remain free. The generals of the belligerent 
powers shall make it their care to inform the inhabitants of this appeal ad- 
dressed to their humanity, and of the neutrality which will be the conse- 
quence of it. Any wounded man entertained and taken care of in a house 
shall be considered as a protection thereto. Any inhabitant who shall have 
entertained wounded men in his house shall be exempted from the quartering 
of troops, as well as from the contributions of war which may be imposed. 

Article VI. Wounded or sick soldiers, whatever their nationality, shall 
be cared for. 

Commanders-in-chief shall have the power to deliver immediately to the 
outposts of the enemy, soldiers who have been wounded in an engagment. 
when circumstances permit this to be done, with the consent of both parties, 
Those who are recognized as incapable of serving, after they are healed, 



MINISTRIES TO THE SICK 315 

In 1883, Queen Victoria instituted the Red Cross order 
in behalf of the British Army, with a fitting decoration. 

Every country in Europe and almost every nation on 
the globe has signed this treaty, the United States being 
almost the last formally to accept its humane principles. 

During the late wars, among women were many who 
followed the American armies and cared for the wounded 
upon the battle field and in the hospital. One of the very 
best of these nurses was Miss Clara Barton. With un- 
tiring zeal she worked, with her heart of love, through 
all those years of the Civil war. Her labor for others did 
not close when the war was at an end. Many an anxious 
parent or friend had sons or loved ones who were asleep 
in nameless graves. Miss Barton began the great task of 
marking the graves of those who fell in that war, and for 
three years she labored and toiled, until success beyond all 
expectation crowned her efforts. 

With the Red Cross movement in America, the name of 
Miss Barton is henceforth conspicuously linked. 

shall be sent back to their country. The others also may be sent back on 
condition of not again bearing arms during the continuance of the war. 
Evacuations, together with the persons under whose direction they take 
place, shall be protected by an absolute neutrality. 

ARTICLE VII. A distinctive and uniform flag shall be adopted for hospi- 
tals, ambulances, and evacuated places. It must on every occasion be accom- 
panied by the National flag. An arm-badge shall also be allowed for indi- 
viduals neutralized, but the delivery of it shall be left to military authority. 
The flag and arm- badge shall bear a red cross on a white ground. 

Article VIII. It is the duty of the conquering army to supervise, as far 
as circumstances permit, the soldiers, who have fallen on the field of battle, 
to preserve them from pillage and bad treatment, and to bury the dead in 
conformity with strict sanitary rules. The contracting powers will take 
care that in time of war every soldier is furnished with a compulsory and 
uniform token, appropriate for establishing his identity. This token shall 
indicate his name, place of birth, as well as the army corps, regiment, and 
company to which he belongs. In case of death, this document shall be with- 
drawn before his burial, and remitted to the civil or military authorities of 
the place of enlistment or home. Lists of dead, wounded, sick, and prisoners, 
shall be communicated, as far as possible, immediately after an action to the 
commander of the opposing army by diplomatic or military means. 

The contents of this article, so far as they are applicable to the maxim, and 
capable of execution, shall be observed by victorious naval forces. 



316 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

The close of this task found her t like Miss Nightingale, 
broken in health, and her physicians urged her to go to 
Europe, for a change of air and rest. Not long after the 
Franco-Prussian war broke out, and the sufferings in- 
cident to war led her again to enter the battle field to al- 
leviate them, and made her acquainted with the workings 
of the Red Cross. She saw how incomplete was her labor 
in the American Civil war, through inadequate organi- 
zation. The Red Cross supplied the lack. The child 
bearing a cup of cold water to a wounded soldier was ab- 
solutely safe in the enemy's ranks, with the Red Cross on 
the arm. 

Miss Barton returned to America resolved to have the 
principles of the Red Cross adopted by the United States. 
She visited President Garfield, who had been a soldier, 
and knew how much suffering might be alleviated by 
proper means, and he promised to do all in his power for 
the new movement. He brought it before his cabinet, and 
had it brought before Congress, and through his labors it 
passed both houses. Laws regulating the action of the 
nation in times of war were changed to conform with the 
regulations of the Red Cross. Just as the treaty was 
ready for his signature, the assassin's bullet took his life. 

This treaty of the Red Cross is one of the missionary 
movements of our century. It has caused all nations to 
see more fully the cruelty and horrors of war, and has 
tended towards the settlement of national difficulties by 
arbitration, rather than by arms, thus, indirectly, further- 
ing peace and unity among nations. Even outside of the 
miseries of war, this organization has for its prime object 
the relief of suffering. Muskets and cannon may be silent 
for a while, but the warring elements, fire, water, and wind, 
may cause suffering at any time. With this in view, there 
has been added to the original scheme what is called the 
American amendment. At Washington, D. C, is stationed 



MINISTRIES TO THE SICK 317 

a field agent, who visits in person every place where aid 
is rendered. In 1881, it relieved those who suffered from 
the effects of the forest fires of Michigan; in 1882, the 
suffering incident to the Mississippi overflow; in 1883, 
from the disaster of the Ohio River, etc., and the Louisi- 
ana cyclone. 

War will never again be attended with the nameless 
and needless terrors and horrors of the Crimean hospitals. 
Christianity has indirect as well as direct effects; and her 
mission in the world is not only Glory to God in the 
Highest, but on Earth, Peace, Good Will toward men. 



CHAPTER XXV 

SYSTEMATIC CHRISTIAN WORK AMONG SOLDIERS 

No work done among soldiers has more fascinating in- 
terest than that of the late Cav. Luigi Capellini in Rome, 
Italy, the " Evangelical Military Church," founded in 
1872 by this earnest man of God. 

He who was thus at the head of this enterprise for 
twenty-five years — and whose work so strangely syn- 
chronized with that of McAll in Paris — was characterized 
as " the soldiers' friend," as his fellow-worker in France 
was known as " the friend of les ceuvriers." From its in- 
ception this project was essentially Italian, and both in its 
promptings and methods intensely personal. Signor 
Capellini " lived, moved, breathed, and had his being " in 
his work for the soldiers. To help, teach, and in every 
way befriend them ; above all, to introduce them to the true 
knowledge of the Captain of their salvation, was his master 
passion. His fitness for the service for which he had such 
a consuming passion showed that he had been raised up 
of God for it; that it was his divine mission, and he, an 
apostle — one sent of God. Many young men of the Italian 
army have through him become good soldiers of Jesus 
Christ, and have endured hardness for His sake. 

Little has been published as to Capellini's great mis- 
sion, but the brief " memorials " are doubly interesting 
and suggestive to such as have been at the chapel services 
in the Eternal City, and have seen the ardor of this con- 
secrated teacher and the responsive fervor of the absorbed 
audience which gave such eager ear to his appeals. 

318 



SYSTEMATIC CHRISTIAN WORK 319 

Capellini was born of popish parents and bred in Romish 
errors. His father died when he was a boy of ten, and his 
mother sent him to school under priestly control, where 
he stayed till he was eighteen, when he was strangely led 
to enlist in the army. A short time after, in strolling 
through the streets, he picked up some leaves of the New 
Testament. They proved to him light in darkness, liberty 
from bondage, and life from the dead. A new proof of 
the power of the living Word and of the use God makes 
of His own book. Capellini from that day knew that 
justification and salvation come by faith alone, without 
human merit or priestly mediation, and at once he became 
a free man in Christ Jesus. 

Of course, he had to meet opposition. His companions 
tried ridicule and threat. They sneered at him as a fool, 
and railed at him as " a Protestant." They warned him 
that the Bible is a bad book and is forbidden; but this 
drove him to study it the more that he might find out why 
it was a proscribed book. He longed for evangelical tracts, 
something, " some man, to guide " him in his inquiry after 
truth. One day he came upon a man who was giving 
away just what he wanted. This man was Angelo Cas- 
tioni, Miss Burton's Bible colporteur. He won his con- 
fidence, and that very evening Capellini and Castioni were 
together, like Philip and the eunuch, and the Italian sol- 
dier went on his way rejoicing that he had enlisted in the 
army, since that was God's way of bringing him to the 
light of life. 

Pity for his comrades led him to seek to bring them out 
into larger place of faith in the great sacrifice, and soon 
he saw them taking from their necks the medallion images 
of the Virgin, worn as a charm, and studying the forbidden 
book; and not a few were converted. Miss Burton fur- 
nished him with Testaments and tracts, and he used all his 
available time in opening up the treasures of God's Word 



320 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

to as many of his comrades as he could gather about him in 
the barracks. Soon after, the command of a detachment, 
sent in pursuit of the brigands, made him his own master, 
and Capellini had religious conferences with his men un- 
hindered. Morning and evening they had readings and 
prayers in common, and those who at first were only 
hearers of the Word, became doers of the Word, and 
then distributors of the Scriptures among the scattered 
peasantry on mountains, plains, and lowlands about Puglia 
and the Abruzzi. Then came the war with Austria., in 
1866, and then the men went forth, all having Bibles in 
their knapsacks, and, as opportunity afforded, the com- 
mander and his regiment read the Scriptures and prayed 
together. 

The thought was thus born in Capellini's mind that, by 
the agency of converted soldiers, God's Word might be 
borne into every city, village, hut, and hovel, and from this 
came in a little time the wider conception realized in the 
military church. 

While at Parma, Capellini was attacked by cholera. His 
soldiers never left him. They repaid his ministries, read- 
ing and praying at his bedside, and interceding with God 
for his restoration. As strength returned to him, he felt 
that he must learn more of the Gospel that he might do 
more for men, and he sought the help of Rev. Henry Pig- 
gott, at Padua, at the same time enlarging his own holy 
effort in behalf of soldiers. Then, as Rome became free, 
he felt that there his headquarters must be, because there 
was the main rendezvous for the military class. 

Difficulties and dangers found him undaunted. Turned 
out of doors, he made the street corners his meeting- 
places. Crowds hung upon his words, but his money was 
exhausted. But God stood by him. Rev. Mr. Waite, 
minister of the American Union church, and later^ Rev. 
Leroy Vernon, of the American M. E. church, came to his 



SYSTEMATIC CHRISTIAN WORK 321 

help, until the Wesleyan Methodists assumed the support 
of the work, provided a meeting-place, and paid Capellini's 
salary. 

Easter, 1873, witnessed the first celebration of the Lord's 
Supper, and Whitsuntide the second, when of the 200 per- 
sons present, forty-five were communicants. The Roman 
Observer, chief organ of the Vatican, now thundered 
against this " proselytizing of the soldiers." Persecution 
began to lay bare her red right arm, and soldiers were de- 
prived of their " Protestant " books, and there were even 
arrests and imprisonments. Certain converts were ar- 
raigned, but refused to renounce their faith, and were 
dismissed with warnings to let alone evangelical meetings 
and Protestant books. A report was sent to Prince Ura- 
berto — since King of Italy — giving names of converted 
soldiers, and a council was called to consider how this work 
could be stopped. Prince Umberto concluded the council 
with these memorable words : " See that no political plot- 
ting goes on under a religious garb, but do not hinder the 
men from fulfilling the duties of their religion." 

This story has a charm seldom rivaled in any tale of 
Christian heroism. On Christmas day, in 1873, Admiral 
Fishbourne presented, in behalf of English soldiers, two 
chalices and accompanying vessels for the eucharist, and 
the flagon bears the inscription : " From the soldiers of 
England to the evangelical soldiers of Italy." And such 
was the eagerness of the men to be present at the Lord's 
Supper that they stayed in Rome at their own cost, paid 
for substitutes, if on duty, or slept on benches in the chapel, 
if too poor to hire lodgings. 

For the conduct of the military church, a deacon was 
chosen from every corps and from the hospital attendants 
— the latter to look after sick soldiers. It is interesting 
to notice how this hospital deacon, Basato, met the priests 
and nuns bearing the consecrated host and wafer to a dying 



322 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

man. They bade him remove his cap and bow his knee, 
but he calmly answered : " I worship God alone, and not 
a god made of Hour." This exposed him to persecution, 
but he bore it meekly. 

From time to time classes are discharged, having served 
their time, and those who have received evangelical truth 
are sent home with ample supplies of good books to give 
away, and so this military church is a recruiting office for 
the ranks of the soldiers of the Cross. During the legal 
period of service the troops have been brought under the 
teaching of Capellini, and then have returned home to dis- 
seminate the precious truths they have learned, and become 
an evangelizing power in the entire country of their birth. 
The chapel at Rome is a receiving and distributing reser- 
voir through which the Italian soldiery pass. 

In 1875 the meetings were transferred to a larger chapel 
in Via Bottighi Oscure, where a library was started, etc. 
When the same year the military church kept its second 
anniversary, 250 soldiers and 105 communicants were 
present, and, as on former occasions, every participant 
took away a Bible as a memento. 

The soldiers, who as converts return to their homes, have 
to meet persecution. Some have to leave their homes, and 
even the neighborhood, and flee to some other place, strip- 
ped of everything except their faith. Yet conversions go 
on at Rome, and the work of witness everywhere where 
the " elect dispersion " are scattered. 

On one occasion the church was much disturbed by the 
colonel of the Bersaglieri, who, by pretenses of various 
sorts, found out who were evangelicals, and took all their 
books from them. Capellini complained to the general in 
command, and the result was again a vindication, for it 
was found that these Protestant " perverts " were in no 
•way transgressing their duties as soldiers of Italy; and a 
religion that makes better men and more loyal soldiers may 



SYSTEMATIC CHRISTIAN WORK 323 

find toleration even in the Italian army. As a colonel 
said, when told that the whole regiment was turning Prot- 
estant : " Better the evangelical meeting than the tavern 
or brothel." 

The whole history of these twenty-seven years is full of 
romantic reality, but abounds with examples of the power 
of the Word of God, and of the God whose Word it is. 
How often have officers, who have forced the men to give 
up their testaments, read a few pages, out of curiosity, and 
found salvation ! Once a soldier, who had frequented the 
meetings and accepted the books gathered his comrades 
by the Tiber and threw the books into the river. Many 
fell short, however, and were picked up on the bank, and 
again led to the knowledge of God. The name and ad- 
dress of the military church being on the cover, this also 
drew the men to come to the meetings, so that some of 
them witnessed that they had " become disciples of Christ 
by means of a New Testament saved from the water." 
Again a host at a tavern found on the dead body of a victim 
of accident a Capellini Testament, which he stole glances 
at and begged he might keep. 

The heroism of Capellini could be learned only at the 
Cross. In the army of Italy all shades of opinion are 
found, from atheism to ultramontanism, and acts of in- 
tolerance are inevitable from those who, because they be- 
lieve nothing, persecute believers, or from those who, be- 
cause they believe something, will allow no one to hold any 
other doctrine. And so the poor soldiers run a perpetual 
gauntlet between two rows of enemies, the infidels and the 
bigots, both armed with clubs that are as merciless as the 
iron flail of Talus. 

Again, the convert is in constant danger of imposition 
as well as opposition from some officer, as when a private, 
Luigi Fares, for a month was kept on duty so constantly 
that he had not a night's rest in bed. 



324 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

Perhaps the greatest discouragement of Capellini was 
the constant depletion of his church membership by the 
return of soldiers to their homes. In the autumn of 1880 
the soldiers' church had but twenty left in Rome, and six 
regiments, with 7,200 men, had not among them one Pro- 
testant. In 1 88 1, 400 registered hearers of the previous 
year were transferred, and only 37 communicants re- 
mained. Yet the same untiring, persistent evangelism! 
Capellini and his evangelists and colporteurs stationed 
themselves at the fountains where all have to go for water, 
and there led thirsty souls to the well of living waters ; or 
they went away to more distant encampments to gather in 
recruits for the army of the Lord. And, when the soldiers 
leave Rome, as active a correspondence as is possible is 
kept up with these scattered members of the flock, who are 
often as sheep among wolves. Tracts, Testaments, and 
books are diligently and at all times scattered in every di- 
rection, and blessed are they who, like Mr. Hawke and 
Mrs. Robertson, have the privilege of supplying the seed 
for such wide sowing. 

The results of this work can not be tabulated, but the 
first eight years' labor showed an aggregate of 730 reg- 
istered converts. What could be shown if all the fruits of 
the work of the subsequent seventeen years could be pre- 
sented also! And what of the unhistoried distribution 
of the Word of God and of the living epistles ! 

Cav. Luigi Capellini was a minister of the Wesleyan 
Methodists, who supported his work in the main, but the 
soldiers of the military church are not reckoned as Wes- 
leyans, but are encouraged to join the evangelical body 
nearest their homes, and all evangelical communities are 
gainers by the undenominational work done in Rome. Let 
Christian visitors go and see for themselves the noble work 
done in Via delle Coppelle No. 28, and Christian givers 



SYSTEMATIC CHRISTIAN WORK 325 

send help in the Lord's name, and so become sharers in 
this noble work. 

In 1879, Leo XIII. took alarm and ordered the monks 
and nuns in the military hospitals to carry out among the 
soldiers a more aggressive propaganda,- and the Bibles were 
stolen from under the pillows, and every effort was made 
by threat and bribe to induce them to return to popish 
books and priests, but in vain. 

In his report for 1897, Cav. Luigi Capellini wrote: 

" In one of the meetings, among the young men attentively 
listening to the preaching of the Word, I noticed a young corporal 
of cavalry who made a strong impression upon me by his in- 
telligent air and the attention which he paid to the sermon. My 
second son, Alfred, a student at the University, who goes to the 
services, and sometimes takes my place when I am absent, went 
up to him and invited him to come up to the house. Here we 
found that he is the nephew of the pope — Count Pecci. His open 
countenance, his loyal and frank way of speaking, convinced us 
that he was really seeking the truth, and I gave him a Bible 
and some books. His uncle, the pope, had made him one of his 
' Guardia Nobile,' — but he had to serve under the king as an 
Italian subject. He not only continued to attend the services as 
long as he was in Rome, but he also brought with him many of 
the men under him, thus becoming himself a propagator of the 
truth." 

Later on in his report, Signor Capellini said that in order 
to stop or neutralize his work, the priests instituted 
organizations called Catholic Military Clubs, providing for 
the soldiers amusement, cigars, and tobacco, and Catholic 
books. Among these books was one called " Errors and 
Heresies of the Protestants," in which ridicule was cast 
upon the services of the military church. It was important 
that something should be done to meet this dangerous in- 
novation, so Cav. Capellini opened schools in which the 
uneducated soldiers might be taught to read and write, and 
provided rooms with books and writing materials for the 



326 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

use of the better instructed. This provision has been 
highly appreciated by the men, and the work has gone for- 
ward all along the line. 

WORK AMONG THE SOLDIERS OF INDIA. 

The " Prayer Room " movement and Soldiers' Christian 
Association in India is another of the comparatively un- 
known forms of Christian service among those who follow 
the profession of arms. W. B. Harington is the founder 
of this really great enterprise, that has been so singularly 
owned and sealed of God. 

If anything has been a public scandal it has been the 
British soldier in the land of the Hindus. His life, char- 
acter, and environment have to a surprising extent been the 
theme of private and public comment for twenty-five years. 
So dark, so sad has been the picture drawn that there have 
been not a few who have contended that there was a fa- 
tality about his evil-doing, and that the combined influ- 
ences of climate, diet, army life, separation from home in- 
fluence, and the contagion of a vicious atmosphere, both 
perpetuate and extenuate a low type of morals. The 
Christian sentiment of the world has been shocked — nay 
the worst of it is that so much so-called Christian sentiment 
has not been shocked — when a life of shameless debauch- 
ery has been defended, and unlawful lust been provided 
for as tho lechery were a necessity ! and even a conspicuous 
Christian woman has been found to justify the sacrifice 
of her own sex on the altar of this modern unchastity. 

We are glad to be able to paint a very different picture, 
and show how much has been already done to help British 
soldiers to learn the victorious power of the Christ-life, and 
so to walk in the Spirit as not to fulfil the lusts of the flesh. 
We do not designedly pass by any other good work done 
in promoting sobriety and chastity, by the army Temper- 
ance Association and army guilds, etc., when we refer 



SYSTEMATIC CHRISTIAN WORK 327 

somewhat at length to the noble effort of Mr. Harington, 
which was first begun in 1859 in Oudh, and has for more 
than forty years been spreading throughout India, and 
even to Cairo, Mauritius, and Singapore. 

For many years Mr. Harington has met the British sol- 
diers five times a week, in barracks, camp, or on the line of 
march. Forty years ago, three soldiers of the 54th Regi- 
ment, quartered in Oudh ; came over from camp to the tent 
of Mr. Harington, where he was occupied with the matter 
of hutting British troops, and asked that they might use for 
devotional meetings, every evening, a small building he 
had just completed for an office. And now Mr. Haring- 
ton has, with government sanction and aid, secured, and in 
fact, erected, in nearly every military center throughout 
India, a Soldiers' Prayer-Room. So manifest were the 
blessed results attending his earlier efforts that, as a matter 
of the " Department of Public Works," with which he was 
connected, it was deemed the most economical use of the 
public funds to provide at least one place in every British 
cantonment, where the soldiers may find a reading-room, 
writing-room, and a meeting-place for Sunday and week- 
day assemblies for prayer and praise. Mr. Harington has 
planned these buildings, their size, shape, and fittings, and 
they are places which the soldiers may call their own. In 
1868, the governor- general in council declared that such 
rooms " shall be considered one of the recognized require- 
ments in the barracks of every British regiment or consid- 
erable detachment of troops ; " and thenceforth the govern- 
ment undertook the provision and maintenance of these 
prayer-room buildings with fittings, furniture, lighting, 
warming, cooling, etc. 

Mr. Harington has also formed in every cavalry regi- 
ment, infantry battalion, and nearly every battery of royal 
artillery, in service in India, a branch of the Soldiers' 
Christian Association. The diminution of vice and crime 



328 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

has been remarkable. The loss of good conduct badges, 
the trials by court martial with imprisonment and other 
penalties, have comparatively ceased, and the physical and 
moral health of the whole army has been vastly improved. 
The governors, judges, magistrates, and statesmen, who 
have been most eminent in Indian affairs, have been the 
foremost in their testimony to Mr. Harington's work and 
given their aid in it ; and from officers, chaplains, and men, 
he has had warm and enthusiastic support in his self-deny- 
ing and successful labors. Government aid did not cover 
such items as Bibles, hymn-books, libraries, papers and 
magazines, wall texts, and table covers and table lamps, 
clocks, musical instruments, etc., so that for the proper 
prosecution of the work donations are constantly needful, 
and the more as the work rapidly expands. Printing, 
stationery, postage, traveling expenses, etc., need also to 
be met by special gifts. 

In 1895 the number of prayer-rooms was 89, of which 
30 were garrison or depot, 5 cavalry, 19 artillery, 35 in- 
fantry, and the average expenditure was but ten pounds 
annually for each room. Up to the end of 1889 Mr. Har- 
ington met to a very large extent out of his own purse the 
needs of the work. Since retiring from service — having 
reached the age limit — he has given his entire time and 
attention to this work, and hence has been unable to bear 
the financial burdens as he did when in government em- 
ploy. 

The work which is before Mr. Harington and his helpers 
is nothing less than winning soldiers to Christ. The Word 
of God, prayer, praise, personal contact, all wholesome re- 
straints and loving constraints, are the weapons which 
have proved not carnal indeed, but mighty to the pulling 
down of the strongholds. The motto which is to be found 
conspicuous in the prayer-rooms, " Jesus only," well de- 
fines the basis of trust and the object of effort. " Joined 



SYSTEMATIC CHRISTIAN WORK 329 

in prayer — joined in the Word — joined in His work," — 
this is the practical bond and secret of unity. The work 
is carried on as under the eye of the great Commander. 
Knowing Mr. Harington personally, we have no hesitancy 
in commending this work to the sympathy, prayer, and pe- 
cuniary aid of every true lover of the soldier and his wel- 
fare. The Soldiers' Bible and Prayer Union (with the 
Soldiers' Magazine as the common organ) was started in 
1886, and is now therefore in its fourteenth year.* 

THE SOLDIERS' CHURCH IN ADEN. 

Of the work among the soldiers in Aden there is not 
space to treat. Under the charge of Dr. John C. Young 
it progresses promisingly. Dr. Young, who went to 
Arabia under the Keith Falconer mission to work for 
Arabs, writes: 

" When I came here five years ago, I found that the non- 
Anglican soldiers were without a place of worship, and that no 
services of any kind were carried on. . . . Having obtained 
liberty from the home committee, services were started, and con- 
tinued for four years, in the largest room of the principal hotel 
in Aden. On the fifth anniversary, however, we entered our new 
church. Since then we have never had a smaller congregation at 
the evening service than ioo soldiers, and last Sabbath there were 
twice as many soldiers as the government return declared there 
are of non-Anglican soldiers in the whole garrison. 

" Many have declared that they have been spiritually helped. 
One man, who had been promoted through bribing his senior 
non-commissioned officer, after conversion handed me iio to send 
anonymously to the man he had wronged, and, having given up 
his stripes, declared that he never felt more happy in his life. 
Nearly a year after he wrote, telling me of the real joy he felt, 
and how now he could speak to his fellows with a clear con- 
science. 

" At the prayer-meetings on Wednesday nights there are some- 



* Address, W. B. Harington, Gen, Hon. Secretary, S. C. A., Totland Bay, 
Isle of Wight, England. 



330 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

times more soldiers present than at ' parade service/ when the 
men are forced to attend. The vestry of the church is used by 
the soldiers' Christian association, ' and there is a meeting of 
some sort every night.' " 



CHAPTER XXVI 

WORK AMONG DEEP SEA FISHERMEN 

How seldom do we ponder over the fact that, as the 
Scotch ballad puts it, " the price of fish is the lives of 
men!" 

" Nor'ard of the Dogger " is the story of " Deep Sea 
Trials and Gospel Triumphs," or the work among the 
deep sea fishermen. E. J. Mather was the founder and 
for some years the director of the mission, which belongs 
conspicuously among the marked movements which we are 
now tracing as parts of God's providential plan. 

The support of these mission ships in the northern seas 
is a many sided benefaction. It looks to the physical, 
mental, moral and spiritual uplifting of a numerous and 
hitherto much neglected class, scattering wholesome read- 
ing, giving surgical and medical aid, offsetting the 
wretched grogships ; but above all the mission ship be- 
comes to multitudes a lifeboat indeed, in which they find 
salvation from the second death. 

A simple question — as in so many other cases — was the 
starting point in this new mission. In the autumn of 
1 88 1, — now nearly twenty years since — a man, interested 
in those who sail the sea, said to Mr. Mather, " Don't 
you think something might be done for our men in the 
North Sea ? " Ignorant of all the real conditions of these 
fishermen, and scarcely knowing of their existence, the 
answer was one of those ready replies whereby even Chris- 
tian workers evade such approaches : " O, yes, I might 
send them some parcels of tracts." The questioner, with 

33i 



332 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

a hearty laugh, replied : " You can't have much notion of 
who and what our men are, if you think that sending a 
bundle of tracts would be ' doing ' anything in the sense 
intended." 

How many of us know much more than Mr. Mather 
then did, of that floating population, — upwards of twelve 
thousand — that go down to the sea in ships and do busi- 
ness in the great waters, between lat. 54 degrees and 56 
degrees N., forced to fight the winds and waves, because 
too far from the shore to find shelter? Voyages of two 
months, with only a few days on land in the intervals, oc- 
cupy the deep sea trawler, with whom this life is so hard 
that the " life to come " has little thought or care. The 
Dogger Bank reaches about 170 miles north and south 
by 65 east and west, and it is a harvest field whose annual 
average yield is 400,000 tons of fish. Mr. Mather, with 
his companion, Rev. R. B. Thompson, on their experi- 
mental trip, came up with the " Short Blues " about 300 
miles from the Thames, and beheld 220 fishing-smacks, 
of from 50 to 80 tons burden, extending for miles each way 
from the admiral's vessel. Among the 1,500 men in the 
fleet, there might have been one in fifty that was a profess- 
ing Christian; but the rest were heedless, godless, uni- 
versally profane, and quarrelsome. The visitors had with 
them 1,000 portions of the New Testament and sundry 
illustrated periodicals — furnished free by the Bible and 
Tract societies of Britain — and these ,they gave away to 
men hungry for anything to relieve the monotony of their 
life. 

Of course difficulties were to be grappled with 
among such a class of men — stormy opposition there was 
sure to be where Satan had so long had a supreme control, 
and the worse antagonism of indifference — the dead calm 
or apathy and lethargy. A few men were found longing 
for some stated " means of grace " — hungry for a prayer 



WORK AMONG DEEP SEA FISHERMEN 333 

meeting, a testimony meeting, a time to hear God's word 
and to offer worship : but the most of them and conspicu- 
ously godless captains were rather ready to curse the men 
who came to turn the fishing smack into a gospelship, and 
some were so hardened that they would rather have a 
floating ginshop or brothel than a floating chapel or 
Bethel. 

Away in that North sea sin may be seen in its awful 
nakedness, with all its fascinations stripped off. The 
greatest foe of the fishermen was the coper or grogshop, 
the curse of the fleet. For more than fifty years these for- 
eign vessels hung about the British trawling ships. They 
seem first to have come from Dutch ports bordering the 
fishing banks, and to have originally been trading shops for 
clothing, etc. ; but they rapidly degenerated into grogshops. 
The Dutch copers made a pretense of selling tobacco, 
which on these boats escaped the heavy duty, and could 
be bought for less than half what it cost on shore; but 
once on board the fisherman found himself within the 
clutch of the drink temptation ; and many a total abstainer, 
beginning with " von leetle drop " by and by would trade 
sails, ropes, nets or even the clothes on his back, as well 
as fish, for drink. The coper has been well called the 
" Devil's mission ship." And grog worked ruin on the 
sea as everywhere — only worse ; for what must become of 
a fleet in a gale when skipper and crew were dead drunk 
on the cabin floor ! or when a drunken steersman had hold 
on the helm, or men, crazed by whiskey, would leap over- 
board! Where Dutchmen set the example, even English- 
men were found to follow ; vessels sailed from British har- 
bors, disguised as trawlers, and steered straight for 
Nieudiep, took in grog and tobacco and joined the fleet to 
make one hundred per cent profit, in a voyage that took 
but a few weeks or months. Action against the copers 
was first taken by the insurance companies that refused 



334 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

applications unless the abandonment of the whiskey trade 
was a condition. 

Here, then, these two visitors to the Nor'ard fleet saw 
in their five days on board a promising — certainly a 
needy — field for a mission. In a village of 1,500 souls, 
which was the population of the floating village — there 
would be four churches or chapels, as many doctors, a 
dispensary, library, town hall and mechanics' institute: 
should not the cruisers have at least some of these ad- 
vantages ? The purpose slowly took form : these fishermen 
must have a mission vessel — which should be at once 
church, temperance hall, library and dispensary. 

Like every true work for God, prayer was its baptism 
into Christ, and its chrism of power ; and prayer brought 
an offer of 1,000 pounds, to rig up and send out a fishing 
smack, to be used to start the mission: the fish taken 
would cover expenses and the Ensign was within three 
weeks ready for sea. A small cabin was partitioned off in 
the hold for the misisonaries' quarters; grants of Bibles 
and other books, woollen mufflers and mittens, and a 
ship's medicine chest, were supplied without charge, and 
a Christian skipper put in charge; and on that unlucky 
day, " Friday," was launched " one of the most remark- 
able social revolutions of modern times." The Ensign shook 
out her twenty-foot mission flag to the breeze — some 
shouting in derision and others bidding it godspeed; but 
amid the jeering and the cheering, away she sailed, four 
months later to run in between the piers, amid the welcome 
that even foes are glad to join in when " success " — that 
great vindicator of all enterprises — puts her crown on a 
new scheme. 

The history of the Nor'ard mission has its funny fea- 
tures, as when one smacksman, having a bottle, labelled 
" for external use only," not knowing what " external " 
meant, poured it down the throat of a poor fellow who 



WORK AMONG DEEP SEA FISHERMEN 335 

had a " powerful " attack of bronchitis. But the fun is 
the exception. Think of a man trying to work in a tre- 
mendous storm with a bad attack of measles ; of another, 
scalped by a piece of spar and the frost so intense that the 
wound stopped bleeding because the blood turned to ice 
before he could be carried below deck ; think of salt water 
irritating cuts and wounds ; of a broken leg, getting stiff 
before any doctor could be got to set it. That first mission 
ship encountered a gale of derision when she came near 
to the fleet and her mission was known ; but again prayer 
was her armor and artillery: and the first who ridiculed 
was the first who learned to pray. The meetings began, 
and the total abstinence pledge was signed by a few, and 
the loving message of the Gospel was heard, and there 
was nothing to pay for medicine or the balm of Gilead. 
No man came to get healing or nursing who did not 
hear of the Great Physician. In one morning and within 
a few minutes, ten boats boarded the Ensign for medical 
and surgical aid, and lips, unaccustomed to such words, 
invoked " blessings on this 'ere vessel." From the first 
voyage, victory was assured. God and man had both set 
seal of approbation on the deep sea mission. Ship owners 
offered their congratulations and donations; families 
ashore joined in praise for the saving of life and health and 
time and wages ; and one smackowner who had little care 
for the souls of men, gave his guineas yearly to a work 
that kept the men from bartering his nets to the coper for 
brandy ! — conversion valued from a business point of view. 
Some conversions meant a different attitude for a whole 
vessel and its crew, as when the "creagan" would no more 
be hoisted as a signal to the coper, and the patronage of a 
whole ship's company was lost to the foreign grogshop. 

Every day the mission vessel had a " service ; " and the 
worst and wildest men were often the first to be reached. 
On one lovely summer's day, ten vessels were lashed side 



336 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

by side, the mission ship in the center ; fifty-two men and 
boys- were in one group on the deck and there was an eight 
hour service, which concluded only when the clock struck 
eleven p. m. ! and even then an inquiry meeting followed 
till 1 130 a. m. ! Three skippers and a cabin boy had found 
their way to a life of temperance and of piety. No wonder 
if an Ostend skipper as long ago as 1884 said: "Those 
cursed mission ships are ruining our trade, and if many 
more of them come there'll soon be no copers ! " 

In the spring of 1883, one fearful storm, " the great 
March gale," sacrificed over 360 men and boys. The dan- 
gers which these northern fishermen meet are many and 
grave. " We lose on an average thirty-five yearly in 
boarding fish, or transferring the heavy trunks of fish 
from small boats to the vessels," said the owner of one 
large fleet. The lives of men might be saved, but they 
think it cowardly to wear life belts, and this introduction 
of life jackets as a condition of small-boat work was one of 
the first reforms. At the best this is hard work. The 
trunks have hand holes at each end, and it needs a strong 
lift and a heavy heave to land them on the rail of the car- 
rier and to time the movement to the swing of the waves. 
If the man that heaves, or the man that is to catch, is an in- 
stant too slow, overboard goes the trunk, if not the heaver 
or the catcher, and accidents are constant and well nigh 
inevitable ; and when injured, the poor fellows, three hun- 
dred miles from all medical and surgical help, had to toss 
about for days before proper treatment could be. had at the 
London hospital. It seemed, at first, impracticable to have 
a doctor in the fleet, and even if there were one, one day's 
round of visits through the small boats would be enough 
to wear him out. 

Mr. Mather saw that dispensary work at least must be 
done on the fleet, and this was the next item that entered 
into his plans. 



WORK AMONG DEEP SEA FISHERMEN 337 

It is really beautiful to find beneath the roughest, coarsest 
exterior, the signs of the soft heart. And the smacksmen, 
w.ith all their wrong-doing often manifest toward a fel- 
low-tar in his distress, a tenderness and generosity that 
prove the survival of humanity within them, as when 
poverty and bereavement strike the fisher's home circle, or 
there is permanent disablement through injury. When one 
of them sees others in peril he becomes oblivious of per- 
sonal risk and plunges into the work of rescue. But when 
these fellows find Christ, they find also their own true 
self with its latent possibilities, that has been hid- 
den beneath the wickedness of a godless life. How manly 
and courageous and unselfish they often become! Lord 
Northbrook found in the North Sea trawling fleet such a 
recruiting ground for the Royal navy that 4,000 smacks- 
men were at one time enrolled in the naval reserve. But 
how many faithful followers has He enrolled who found 
in Galilean fishermen apostles that left boats and nets and 
all behind and went to fishing for men. 

When, in 1882, the Ensign was rigged out as a mission 
vessel, it was found that she maintained herself by trawl- 
ing. This emboldened the leaders of this mission to secure 
three more vessels, the whole being the property of men 
who invested in the matter as a Christian business enter- 
prise, appointing Mr. Mather managing owner, and lend- 
ing the vessels for the purposes of the mission, looking to 
the profit of fishing for a reasonable interest on their outlay. 
But the decline of the fishing trade caused a change of 
plans, and led to the purchase of these three additional 
vessels, for the mission, and not long after the Ensign like- 
wise was bought and renamed the Thomas Gray in recog- 
nition of many acts of kindness from the head of the main 
department of the Board of Trade. In answer to prayer 
for additional ships, a letter from the Duchess of Grafton 
brought another gift of 2,150 for a new mission ship, to 



338 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

be named the Eustin and this gift opened a new era in the 
matter of the mission ships — as it proved that of the Lord 
directly might be obtained vessels for His work without 
the worry of caring for property, lent by business men as 
a commercial venture; and it became more and more evi- 
dent that the command to " go into all the world " meant 
the world of waters, too, and the promise " Lo I am with 
you alway," covered the trackless highways of sea as 
well as of land. 

The fisherman seems to find in his pipe a necessity, and 
even the Christian sailors felt tobacco to be an essential, 
not only to comfort but to warmth and endurance. But 
if tobacco was to be supplied it must be through some 
agency that would rid the fleet of the standing menace of 
the coper. Some felt it to be a mistake, but the mission 
conductor undertook to remove out of the way temptation 
to visit the copers, by supplying cheap tobacco to those 
who felt it a sine qua non. After a careful and we doubt 
not a prayerful consideration of the whole matter, it was 
determined to make this effort to neutralize the traffic of 
the floating grogshops, and such was the actual result, so 
that the copers' business was not " regulated but relegated 
to their native shores." The government at last allowed 
tobacco to be sold in the fleet, free of customs duty, thus 
facilitating the work of antagonizing the copers. 

The good wrought by this mission to the deep-sea fisher- 
men no statistical column could exhibit. One vessel that 
left Hull without two men aboard that feared God, re- 
turned with all but five rejoicing in Him. 

The work among the fishermen became known, and 
every summer witnessed volunteer missionaries electing to 
pass their vacation among the trawlers: and with con- 
stantly increasing interest and enlarging success. The re- 
turns for such work proved comparatively quick, obvious 
and abundant, more fruitful than work on shore. Eleven 



WORK AMONG DEEP SEA FISHERMEN 339 

clergymen were afloat in the mission ships in 1886, twelve 
in 1889, and in one case the evangelistic efforts proved so 
blessed that seventeen out of nineteen skippers who had 
attended the valedictory prayer-meeting when the mis- 
sion smack was leaving for port, had learned to trust in 
the Lord Jesus on board the " Bethelship." 

It is now thirteen years since the mission to deep-sea 
fishermen was duly recognized, registered and certified 
Lw the Board of Trade, with a council of fifteen members 
and various subcommittees. The work still goes on, and 
the copers find their office gone and the amount of their 
trade not worth the expenditure. 

Note. — Mr. Mortimer Sladen of Windermere, England, has 
lately given a Pioneer Hospital Steam Trawler to the Deep Sea 
Fishermen. It is a superb vessel, 154 feet long, by 22 feet broad. 
Its tonnage over 93 tons, and its total value, with fittings and fur- 
nishings, is nearly $100,000. Her name is Alpha, and her speed 
over 11 knots. She is fitted with four water-tight bulkheads, and 
a collision bulkhead in addition, at each end. Mr. Sladen has left 
nothing undone to make his splendid gift as perfect as possible. 

The hospital is supplied with a hot water heating installation, 
ventilation and sanitation provisions, swing cots for fracture cases, 
the best surgical appliances, including a Rontgen Ray apparatus, 
etc. 

At the same time more than fifty other unique features contrib- 
ute to the completeness of this as a mission ship, also — bookcase, 
library, harmonium, electric lights, communicating cabins and sa- 
loons that can be used for public services — whatever could help to 
make this more adapted for its various service, Mr. Sladen's fer- 
tility of resources, and generosity of heart have assured. 

We have the pleasure of knowing the donor, who himself, with 
his brother Alfred, has designed their own steam launches, and so 
has a special fitness for the planning of such a ship for the deep 
sea work. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

MISSION WORK AMONG LEPERS 

When Spirit-moved men and women undertake mission 
work among lepers, they reach and touch the lowest depths 
of human degradation, wretchedness, and hopeless misery. 

Of all human maladies, leprosy is the one, unique, soli- 
tary disease, that has borne, throughout all time, the brand 
of peculiar curse, as " the scourge of God." Technically, 
it is a chronic skin disease, whose main characteristics are 
two: ulcerous eruptions, and successive desquamations of 
dead skin. The name is now usually restricted to elephan- 
tiasis. It is clearly hereditary, and overwhelming facts seem 
to show that under some circumstances it is contagious; 
that, at least, where there is habitual contact and associa- 
tion, as between parents and children, it is communicated, 
whereas separation prevents its development even where 
there is a leprous parentage.* 

A leper is a walking parable of guilt and death. To the 
Jew especially, leprosy was the sign and seal of sin, already 
bearing its visible judgment. A leper was unclean, and he 
was obliged to proclaim his own uncleanness. His touch 
was defilement, his garments were spotted by the flesh, 
and he lived apart from others, and could not even come 



* There are believed to be 500,000 lepers in India, 100,000 in China, as many 
more in Japan, 1,200 in the Hawaiian Isles, 27,000 in Colombia, South America, 
500 in the United States, as many more in Cuba, 2,000 in Norway, etc. Isola- 
tion is the only known means of eradication. There is a growing sentiment 
in favor also of the separation of the sexes, that there may be no propagation 
of offspring that have predisposition to the taint of this horrible disease. 
It seems as tho no measures were too drastic to stamp out this malady. 

340 



MISSION WORK AMONG LEPERS 341 

near to the altar where sin was expiated by blood. Miriam, 
tho the sister of Moses and Aaron, was shut out of the 
camp when the leprous brand appeared on her brow, and 
King Uzziah was shut out from his palace, and " lived in 
a separate house until the day of his death." Trench, in 
one awful sentence, sums up the matter : " Leprosy is noth- 
ing short of a living death, a poisoning of the springs, a 
corrupting of all the humors of life ; a dissolution little by 
little of the whole body." No language can describe the 
horror and terror inspired by the sight of a crowd of abject 
leprous beggars, as they are seen thronging the Jaffa gate 
of the sacred city, and reaching out the stumps of handless 
arms, their faces ghastly, with sockets from which the eyes 
have dropped out, perhaps without ears, and their bodies in 
every state and stage of actual physical defect. The leper 
is the slow, sure victim of a death that kills one member at 
a time, and severs it from the body, like a dead limb that 
drops off from a tree by its own rottenness. Dante, in his 
visits to the Inferno, never beheld any sight that so sug- 
gests the awful curse that follows sin to the third and 
fourth generation, if not the fortieth, or compares with 
this in indescribable repulsiveness. Surely it is no acci- 
dent that, in that eighth chapter of Matthew — Scriptura 
Miraculosa, as Ambrose called it — the first recorded mir- 
acle is one in which the great Healer not only made the 
leper clean, but by touching him, thus identifying himself 
with his uncleanness and becoming ceremonially himself 
a leper! No wonder Isaiah, foreseeing His glory and 
speaking of Him declares, " Himself took our infirmities 
and bare our sicknesses/' 

We can not appreciate the Christlike self-sacrifice and 
passion for souls that must have moved holy men and 
women to approach a leprous community, and even be- 
come permanently identified with their relief and salvation, 
unless we first get a true glimpse of the actual condition in 



342 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

which lepers were found. And here again words fail. 
There are no terms quite equal to the description. For 
example, when Miss Kate Marsden went on her mission 
of charity to Viliusk, in Siberia, the frightful state of the 
lepers in the province was found to be worse even than as 
set forth in the report of the medical inspector. They were 
found driven into exile in vast forests, almost nude, and 
closely packed in dirty yourtas. So great is the dread of 
this disease that people suffering from other ailments are 
often exiled with the lepers and forced to abide with them, 
through mistakes of the natives when denning leprosy; 
and awful brutality is practised, under plea of banishing a 
leper from society; where greed is the motive — some small 
fortune left by a relative being thus seized by the persecu- 
tors, a leper being treated as one civilly dead, and having 
no right to property. A supposed child-leper was starved 
to death, for the sake of a few cows left him by his parents. 
An uncle, whose ward he was, first murdered his sister, 
and then persuading his neighbors that the boy was a leper, 
drove him into a forest in the depths of a Siberian winter, 
and there, with no shelter but a sort of kennel, a few sticks 
lightly covered with cow dung and snow, starved, half- 
frozen, and on the verge of madness, the boy was left to 
die. When found the body was but skin and bones, with 
a little clay in the stomach which had been devoured in 
the pangs of hunger, and there was not a sign of leprosy 
or any other disease! 

The crowding together of these outcasts in the same 
filthy yourta, makes physical cleanliness and moral purity 
alike impossible. The yourta or yurt, is often only a pen 
in which human beings and cattle herd together, men, 
women, and children, all alike. It is made of logs, cov- 
ered with earth and moss, and partly sunk in the ground, 
one of the most primitive human habitations, and having 
none of the qualities of a comfortable or decent dwelling. 



MISSION WORK AMONG LEPERS 343 

Miss Marsden found the Siberian lepers clad in cast-off 
garments of the Yakuts (members of the Turkish race, of 
the basin of the Lena, E. Siberia), these garments being 
generally fur-skins filled with vermin, filthy beyond words, 
and at best a mass of tatters. 

The leper is so accustomed to being avoided and 
shunned that, even when approached by the messengers 
of love and pity, he shrinks as in terror, or as tho some 
violence or insult were intended. He feels himself an out- 
cast, doomed to be an exile from all clean society. One 
visit to the vile and small huts where lepers dwell is 
enough to fix itself forever on the mind of the visitor. 
There is almost no light, a door so low that one can not 
enter without bowing, and the air, which even the fire can 
not purify, foul to suffocation with the leprous exhalations 
and the odors of rotten fish that are their chief diet. 
No beds or linen, but benches, and no robes but rags, 
and all this for years at a time. In a small hovel, six men 
and three women were often found huddled together. Of 
course, such abodes are absolutely without sanitary pro- 
visions and swarm with vermin, and often the only places 
to sleep are rude trunks of trees covered with planks, on 
which these outcasts lie, packed together, the head of one 
opposite the feet of the. next. And in such abodes they eat, 
cook, sleep, live, and die. It is customary for a dead body 
to be kept in the hovel for three days, and in a visitation 
of smallpox, four dead bodies were thus kept during such 
time in the same room with the living ! 

Mr. Guilford gives a similar account* of his own visit 
to the leper asylum at Tarn Taran (India) with its 234 
wretched inmates. There he met a surging crowd of de- 
formed, mutilated human beings, in whom all the dire ef- 
fects of sin ever wrought on the human frame seemed pre- 
sented in one mass before his eyes. To stay lon^ in such 



* " The Lepers in Our Indian Empire." W. C. Bailey. 



344 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

a scene was impossible, but he said that until death the 
sight would haunt him. It was a living charnel house. 

Various efforts have been made in behalf of the lepers, 
in which we are not surprised again to find the Moravians 
leading. Always ready to dare the worst climates and 
the most hopeless conditions, before the first quarter of 
the century had passed, in 1822, they began work at Himel 
en Aarde (Heaven and Earth), in South Africa. Four 
years before, the colonial government, fearing the spread 
of leprosy, had built a temporary asylum in this valley, 
whose weird name suggests its isolation, far from human 
abodes, and so hemmed in by rocks as to be opened only 
to the sky. The hospital having been enlarged, Governor 
Somerset sought for a Moravian to manage the institution 
and to teach the inmates Christian truth. Rev. Mr. Leit- 
ner and wife took up this work, and supposing it to involve 
risk of contagion, they entered this asylum, thenceforth to 
be themselves virtually ranked as lepers. 

The transformations were marvelous. Industry and 
intelligence and cleanliness proved to be the handmaids 
of piety, and neat gardens surrounded the hospital, and an 
aqueduct was built to supply water. During six years 
Mr. Leitner baptized 95 adults, and on Easter-day, 1829, 
while baptizing a convert, he suddenly passed to his re- 
ward. For ten years more the Moravians were in charge ; 
and in 1846 the hospital was enlarged, improved, and re- 
moved to Robben Island, near Cape Town. The duties 
of the missionaries were henceforth restricted to the educa- 
tional and spiritual, government officials being in general 
charge. A school was begun, whose first teacher was a 
young Englishman, John Taylor, who after five years 
of earnest work died in 1866. The Moravians con- 
tinued identified with this hospital at Robben Island until 
1867, when a chaplain of the Church of England was ap- 
pointed to the religious oversight of the institution. 



MISSION WORK AMONG LEPERS 345 

The Moravians have been similarly connected with the 
leper Home at Jerusalem, erected outside the Jaffa gate, 
and which owed its suggestion to Baron Von Keffen- 
brinck-Ascheraden's visit to the Holy Land. He and his 
wife saw these wretched outcasts, dependent on the alms 
of passers-by, lodging amid abject poverty, and dying in 
unsoothed agony. And again, when a small home was 
provided, the United Brethren gave Mr. and Mrs. F. 
Tappe to become father and mother to the loathsome and 
incurable lepers. This asylum, opened in 1867, was en- 
larged in 1875 and 1877, an d a new and larger building 
erected on a new site in 1887, at cost of $20,000. In 1884 
Mr. Tappe's health having compelled his retirement, Fritz 
Muller and wife took charge. Out of about twenty Mo- 
ravians who gave themselves to this sacred ministry not 
one has taken the disease. The leper-home at Jerusalem 
has issued its twenty-ninth report. Since 1891 Mr. and 
Mrs. Schubert have been in charge. The year 1896 began 
with 19 patients, ten of them being men and nine women; 
and during the year, fifteen more were admitted, and one 
died. Diligent study and effort are now directed to the 
medical treatment of leprosy. 

We can not within such limited space give the complete 
history of missions to lepers ; but, in this great work, 
Wellesley C. Bailey, of Edinburgh, the well-known secre- 
tary of the Mission to Lepers in India, must have a con- 
spicuous mention. It is now twenty-six years since, re- 
turning from mission work in India, he told Dublin 
friends of his efforts to help and save lepers. His tracts 
on the subject, half a million of which were circulated, 
united with his personal appeals, kindled such interest, 
that in 1878 a committee was formed in Dublin, and the 
work reorganized and enlarged, nine years later. No one 
who has been at all familiar with this grand work needs 
to be told that from 1875 onward, in Chamba, in the 



346 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

Sabathu asylum at Ambala, in the Punjab, in Almora, at 
Dehra, at Calcutta, at Lohardugga, and Purulia, Chota 
Nagpore, at Travancore, at Rurki, at Pithora, at Allaha- 
bad, at Rawal Pindi, at Madras, in Neyoor, etc., etc., this 
society has either built or aided asylums. About twelve 
years ago the work of separating untainted children from 
their parents was begun, and retreats were provided for 
such children at Almora, Pithora, Lohardugga, Purulia, 
etc. The aim of this organization is twofold, philan- 
thropic and evangelistic, its supreme aim being not only to 
better the temporal condition of the lepers but to save their 
souls. 

One of the most humane results of the mission to the 
lepers, has been the separation of children, born of leper 
parents, from their original surroundings. Most medical 
men are now agreed that the disease is undoubtedly con- 
tagious,* and that the worst condition of such contagion 
is where children continue to live in the leprous homes 
where they were born. Before reaching majority it has 
been found that the great bulk of such offspring develop 
the loathsome disease, so that of all who were born in the 



* This seems to be a good point at which to refer to the recent Leprosy 
Conference at Berlin. It was called by the foremost Leprologists in the 
world, and the following conclusions were reached : 

i. The disease is communicated by the bacillus, but its condition of life 
and methods of penetrating the human organism are unknown. Probably it 
gains entrance through the mouth or mucous membranes. 

2. It is certain that mankind alone is liable to the bacillus. 

3. Leprosy is contagious but not hereditary. 

4. The disease has hitherto resisted all efforts to cure it. 

Observe, that in affirming the contagiousness of the disease, it is probably 
meant that it is contagious by some form of inoculation only, such as re- 
ceiving into a cut or abraded surface some particle from a sore or ulcer of a 
leper. We must not confuse contagion and infection. Medical missionaries 
and others freely handle lepers and dress their wounds, yet no one has ever 
been known to contract the disease. Children of lepers probably have a 
hereditary predisposition to the disease, and if left to live in the same huts, 
sleep in the same beds, and eat out of the same vessels, run great risk. 



MISSION WORK AMONG LEPERS 347 

asylum at Tarn Taran, during thirty years, and who were 
left there, only two did not become confirmed lepers. At 
Almora, however, for years past children have been sepa- 
rated from their parents, and only one child has shown 
signs of leprosy, * proving how much can be done to stop 
the spread of this scourge. No wonder Mr. Guilford pro- 
nounced it the saddest of sights to see a bright, innocent, 
untainted child fondled by a leper mother, and fed from 
hands that are a mass of corruption ; and yet in India thou- 
sands of sights like this may be seen daily. 

Can the souls of such wretched outcasts be reached? 
Let Mr. Guilford again testify, f At one time the asy- 
lum at Tarn Taran was in charge of a native doctor, 
whose hatred of Christianity was proverbial, and when 
some converted lepers sought a home in the asylum, in a 
rage he drove them away until they should renounce their 
faith. Hear their answer : " If you refuse us admission 
unless we deny our Lord and Master, we are content to 
go and sit on the highway and die." And there they sat 
for eight long days, with no shield from the intense sun 
save the trees, and with scarce a morsel of food, and this 
inhuman native doctor would not even allow the asylum 
shop to sell them food ! In the asylum at Purulia, Mr. 
Bailey met a bright, happy audience of lepers, where only 
five out of 116 were even nominally heathen, and nineteen 
came forward for baptism in one service. What a sight to 
see these lepers bowing at the communion of the Lord's 
supper, w T here the bread had to be dropped into their 
hands, or put into their mouths because they had no 
hands, and the ' cup ' served to them by a spoon ! " 

Without the Camp states that the Mission to Lepers 
in India and the East works in connection with 18 so- 



* "The Lepers in Our Indian Empire." Bailey, p. 107. 
+ Ibid. Bailey, p. 103. 



348 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

cieties or denominations and 40 stations in India, Burma 
and Ceylon, and 7 in China and Japan. Of asylums and 
hospitals of their own they have 14 in India and Burma; 
5 in China and Japan; with 14 homes for untainted chil- 
dren; they aid 11 other institutions and have 15 places 
open to them for Christian instruction. In all, 2,700 per- 
sons receive help. 

Were the history of missions to the lepers fully written, 
it would supply some of the most pathetic tales of heroism 
ever recorded even in missionary history. We all remem- 
ber the interest which centered about " Father Damien's " 
work among the lepers on the island of Molokai. Tho 
there was thought to be some false glamor or halo about 
this man, especially after his death, the Prince of Wales 
presided over the committee formed to raise a monument 
to this departed worker, to establish leper wards in hos- 
pitals, and to send out physicians to cope with the terrible 
evil and study its cure or relief. 

Leprosy was brought to the Sandwich Islands by a trav- 
eler from Asia early in this century, and spread so fast 
that the government, in 1865, decreed the banishment of 
every tainted man, woman, and child to the island of 
Molokai, and in thirty years more than 3,000 have thus 
been exiled to await death in this lonely seagirt home. 
When, in 1873, Father Damien went there he found these 
lepers given over to every form of sloth, lawlessness, and 
vice. Before his death he saw very great improvement, 
and aroused not only the Hawaiian government to a sense 
of shame and duty, but awakened all civilized peoples to 
active sympathy for these outcasts. His own hands 
became so crippled by the disease that at the last he could 
only sign letters that he could no more write. Father 
Damien was wont to speak to the unhappy inmates of the 
island as " we lepers ; " and when he took the disease, he 



MISSION WORK AMONG LEPERS 349 

told them it was God's way of bringing him and them 
closer together. Through his work miserable huts were 
exchanged for clean cabins; there is a hospital, costing 
$10,000, with skilled physicians.'* 

Those who have read the heroic story of Miss Mary 
Reed, will not need to be reminded of its indescribable 
pathos. She is an American missionary of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in India, and, her health giving way, 
she came home, but for a year had no suspicion of the real 
nature of her illness, which baffled all the science and art 
of medicine. God himself, in midnight vision, revealed 
to her that it was leprosy, and made plain to her that she 
was henceforth to be a messenger of mercy to a leper com- 
munity in the mountains of India. A specialist subse- 
quently confirmed the impression of the vision, and all her 
suspense was over. To lessen the pain of parting, she left 
her father, mother, brothers, and sisters without revealing 
her secret, save to one sister, and on her way wrote home 
the terrible news. Then she went on to Pithora, in the 
Himalayas, and has been finding in those mountain heights 
— what they mean — " heavenly halls/' Here is a refined, 
cultured young woman, smitten with this awful malady, 
exiling herself for the sake of these outcasts. She went 
among them, and, with hot tears, said, but without a 
tremor in her voice, and with a heavenborn smile: "I 
am now one of you!' There on the heavenly heights of 
Chandag, 6,000 feet above the sea, she is pointing outcast 
lepers to the Friend of outcasts, and her heart finds joy 
never known before in her Christlike work. She may be 
found daily binding up with her own hands the wounds 
and sores of lepers, while she pours the oil of God's con- 
solation into their souls. She was found with 73 inmates 



* An interesting description of this settlement is found in Jno. R. Musick's 
" Hawaii: Our New Possessions." Funk & Wagnalls Co. 



350 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

in the asylum, and 500 within ten miles radius, whom she 
aims to get under the same blessed shelter.* 



* Those who would read more fully on this terrible yet fascinating theme, 
may find in the following books more ample information : " The Lepers in 
Our Indian Empire," " Mission to Lepers in India and the East," and " A 
Glimpse at the Indian Mission-Field and Leper Asylums," etc. W. C. Bailey. 
John F. Shaw, London. " On Sledge and Horseback to Outcast Siberian 
Lepers." Kate Mar sden. Cassell Pub. Co. "The Story of the Mission to 
Lepers in India." H. S. Carson, London. " European Lepers in India." Miss 
Lila Watt. "Without the Camp." Magazine, Lombard Street, Toronto, 
Canada, and Edinburgh, Scotland. "Encyclopedia of Missions." Funk & 
Wagnalls Co. " Picket Line of Missions." Eaton & Mains, New York. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

RESCUE MISSIONS 

This name has come to stand for organized effort to 
reach and save those most desperately lost — lost not to 
God only but to man ; sunk to the lowest level, and beyond 
the ordinary touch of Christian benevolence and benefi- 
cence. They do not go to church, and the church does 
not go to them. They are in a pit so deep that the com- 
mon means of grace do not avail ; a special " life-line " let 
down to their level, and fitted to grapple them fast — a 
special message and mission, with peculiar love for the lost 
and passion for souls, seem needful for this sort of work. 
The Church has often been charged with indifference 
where, perhaps, the real difficulty is inadequacy. Many a 
pastor or earnest Christian stands and looks on the dying 
thousands of drunkards, harlots, criminals, paupers, about 
them, and simply turns away, sick at heart, as a helpless 
observer, standing on a sea-beach, beholds others hope- 
lessly carried beyond reach of any available life-saving ap- 
paratus, to drown. 

This half century has witnessed rescue work on a scale 
of magnitude, both as to the effort and its results, probably 
beyond any other period of history. A few forms of this 
philanthropy deserve special mention, while others which 
may have only a mention, are no less deserving of sym- 
pathy and aid. The Salvation Army and American Vol- 
unteers,* The Mission to the Deep-Sea Fishermen, The 



* Mrs. Ballington Booth's work for the prisoners. 

351 



352 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

Jerry McAuley Mission, The Florence-Crittenton Mid- 
night Mission may stand as representative movements. 
The first two are directed toward the poor and outcast 
classes generally; the third, toward the fishermen off the 
British Isles ; the fourth is planted amid the drunkards, 
thieves, and worthless scamps of Water Street, New 
York ; and the last is sacredly limited to the street- walkers 
and lost women who have sacrificed chastity on the altars 
of passion, poverty, and ignorance of the value of woman- 
hood and virtue. 

As to the Salvation Army, the one personality about 
whom this gigantic scheme revolved, and from whom it 
took its real character, was perhaps Catherine Booth, more 
than even her husband. She will ever be remembered as 
" the mother of the Salvation Army." Her memorials, 
in two great volumes, octavo, of about 700 pages each, are 
before the public, written in sympathetic ink by her son- 
in-law, Mr. Booth-Tucker. They show how far-reaching 
and deep-reaching her influence was, and are more fascina- 
ting than any fiction. Mrs. Booth was one of the greatest 
and best women of her century. A daughter who was 
one of the rarest gifts God ever gave to a parent ; a wife 
that stood by her husband at risk of everything, and stirred 
him up to as much good as Jezebel stirred Ahab to evil,; 
and a mother who swore a solemn oath before high heaven 
that she never would have a godless child ! 

Upon her heart lay like a nightmare the awful woe and 
wickedness of the " submerged " populations that are sunk 
out of ordinary reach, and almost out of sight, in their own 
wantonness and wretchedness. And when little by little 
the plans grew whereby it was proposed to get a hold upon 
these neglected and neglecting millions, she became the 
cherishing mother of the whole movement. She nursed 
it from the full breasts of her consolations ; she bore it in 
the tireless arms of her faith; she fostered it by her 



RESCUE MISSIONS 353 

prayers ; she bathed it in her tears ; she wrapped it in the 
mantle of her love; she patiently forebore with its follies 
and wants ; she as patiently counseled and cautioned, while 
she passionately pleaded and urged. When she died it 
seemed to " General " Booth himself as tho this world- 
embracing scheme had lost its head and heart, and was in 
a state of widowhood and orphanhood, both at once. 

The Salvation Army, with all its extravagances and 
serious defects has been on the whole a great success. 
Two great errors mar its record thus far; it has not suf- 
ficiently exalted the Word of God, and it is virtually a 
church without sacraments. There is an undue emphasis 
upon a subjective experience and a personal testimony, 
while the objective truth and the inspired Book of Witness 
fall into the background. In the Salvation Army halls the 
Bible is rarely lifted to prominence, as the acknowledged 
centre of all testimony and teaching ; nor are Baptism and 
the Lord's Supper observed in connection with this organi- 
zation. True, Mr. Booth disclaims all churchly character 
for the organization ; it is not a church, but an army. Yet it 
remains true that he gathers in converts, and teaches them 
to make the army their church — for he says they can not 
serve in the army and at the same time be active members 
in any church — and yet he makes no provision for obedi- 
ence to the only two specific ordinances ever enjoined by 
our Lord. 

Nevertheless, the army has achieved great things. It 
has planted everywhere its halls, its refuges, its homes, 
its hundred-fold methods,* and they have proved effective 
beyond anything of the sort, in actually uplifting, saving, 
and transforming men and women. And, altho the head 



* The latest enterprise in America is the Farm Colony established in Cali- 
fornia, and intended to provide homes for the poor of our great cities who 
are willing to work. This colony is not " cooperative,' ' but has certain rules 
and restrictions calculated to contribute to the well-being of the community. 
Thirty-one houses had already been built in the first colony in 1898. 



354 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

of this vast organization is one of the most autocratic of 
autocrats, he has handled immense sums of money and 
given a good account of his stewardship. Even his ene- 
mies and detractors have failed to find any fatal flaw in 
his business-like, economical, honest, and judicious use of 
money. He seems to live for the work he has undertaken, 
and to have laid himself on the altar of his service. 

The work of Jerry McAuley, the apostle to the outcasts, 
recently commanded special public attention by the ob- 
servance of its twenty-fifth anniversary, in Carnegie Hall, 
New York, of which ample notice was taken by the press. 

In nothing does God's hand more strikingly appear than 
in the fitness of workers for their work. Times, places, 
forms of service, and adaptation of means to ends, all show 
intelligent design and a personal control. In the character 
and career of this founder of the " Water Street " and 
" Cremorne " missions for the reclamation of the worst 
and most dangerous classes, there may be seen a converg- 
ence of many marked providential lines of preparation. 

Well known as are this man and his work by name, it is 
very doubtful whether one in ten, even of the church-goers 
in the great metropolis, knows much of the actual incep- 
tion and growth of this enterprise, still less of the way in 
which it is carried on. Yet it is certain that no true dis- 
ciple could doubt, after personal observation, that if any- 
where in this vortex of crime our Divine Master is closely 
imitated it is in the Jerry McAuley work. 

No 316 Water Street, New York, is almost exactly un- 
derneath the western approach to the great suspension 
bridge which spans the East River. Any night of the 
year a good-sized room may there be found, full of men, 
whc, for the most part, are obviously poor, given to drink 
anu other vices ; and many faces bear the marks of crime. 
A few seem to have the black brand of Cain. The tramp 
and pauper, the pickpocket and river thief, the besotted 



RESCUE MISSIONS 355 

sailor and highway robber, the procurer to lust and the 
blatant blasphemer — every class of the worst men and 
women find their way there, and one may there speak to 
from two hundred to three hundred of these victims of 
want, woe, and vice. On one night of the week these hun- 
dreds are freely fed with good bread and coffee, as well as 
with the Bread of Life. The Gospel is sung with rousing 
effect, brief and simple Gospel talks interspersed, and an 
after-meeting always follows for prayer and testimony, 
and hand-to-hand touch with inquirers. 

For over a quarter of a century, night after night in hot 
and cold weather, in wet and dry, with no dependence but 
faith in God, with no recompense but the wages of soul 
winners, his work has gone on, at times scarce surviving 
for want of funds and popular sympathy, yet always out- 
living any threatened danger of collapse, because God is 
behind it. It is no slight upon any other true work of 
God among the lowest classes, to record the calm con- 
viction that, beyond any other one agency in the great 
metropolis, the Lord has used this Water Street Mission 
to reach, reclaim, and restore the very outcasts, and par- 
ticularly men. Tho there has been no jealous care to 
count up converts and tabulate tangible results in statistics, 
during the quarter century, this mission and the Cremorne 
Mission in Thirty-second Street, which is its later out- 
growth, have, without doubt, caused a million outcasts 
to hear the Gospel, and at least fifteen thousand men and 
women have found their way to a sober, honest, virtuous 
life by these means. 

Such a work, going on quietly, on such a scale, demands 
attention and assistance from those who would help to 
save the lost. While others talk and write about the prob- 
lem of reaching the outcasts., this mission is doing it, doing 
it so scripturally as to defy criticsm, and so efficiently as to 
merit imitation. After frequent visits to both the Water 



356 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

Street and Cremorne missions, we bear witness that no 
feature of the work has left an unfavorable impression. 
Economy and simplicity of management, directness of ap- 
peal, evangelical tone, a prayerful spirit, dependence on 
God, hearty sympathy for man as man, and a divine pas- 
sion for souls, seem to mark the whole history of the 
work which Jerry McAuley founded, and which Mr. S. 
H. Hadley and others carry on in the same spirit. If any 
doubt whether any good thing can come out of Nazareth, 
the old remedy is still at hand, " Come and see." 

As this mission of Jerry McAuley has completed its first 
quarter century, it may be well to give a brief resume of 
the rescue work. 

Its beginning was unique. John Allen — " the wicked- 
est man in New York " — kept a saloon and dance-house 
in Water Street, two doors from the site of this mission. 
In a dare-devil spirit he asked some missionaries, as they 
passed along one Sunday afternoon in 1868, to come in 
and hold a prayer-meeting in his saloon. They consented, 
if he would shut up his bar, which he did, and in this 
strange place for a Gospel service, praise and prayer and 
testimony for a little time displaced drunkenness, pro- 
fanity, and lust. Allen's drunken fun led to serious busi- 
ness, for the invitation was soberly repeated, and the sa- 
loon was packed the next Sunday, and many could not get 
inside. New Yorkers will not forget the wild excitement 
which is forever linked with John Allen's name, from this 
remarkable* invasion of his premises by the Gospel of 
grace. Up to this time the Water Street neighborhood 
was a gateway of hell, nay, one long row of " dives " and 
" dance-halls," where almost every door led down to the 
devil's headquarters. Kit Burns' ratpit was but a block 
away, where " Jack, the rat," bit off rats' heads for the en- 
tertainment of sightseers! 



RESCUE MISSIONS 357 

This open door at Allen's saloon led to further attempts 
to enter this highway to perdition. A missionary, Mr. 
Little by name, while mounting a stairway found a gigan- 
tic amazon disputing his advance. " Madam," said he, of- 
fering a tract, " do you know Jesus? " "Faith, and who is 
He?" was the answer. A few feet away, and within a 
door that stood ajar, lay Jerry McAuley — drunk. He had 
been converted at Sing Sing prison by hearing " Awful " 
(Orville) Gardner, the famous prize-fighter, give his 
testimony in the prison chapel. Jerry had known him well 
before the grace of God touched him, and he could not 
resist such witness to the power of God. It resulted in 
such a change of life in himself that Governor Dix 
pardoned him and set him free. But the ex-convict found 
even divine pardon was not social restoration, and for lack 
of a helping hand, he fell back into evil ways. The men- 
tion of that magic ^name, "Jesus," even in a drunkard's 
ear, proved mighty to recover the backslider, whom it had 
saved as the outcast sinner. Jerry leaped to his feet, and his 
whole attire and appearance helping to render him fright- 
ful, he ran after the fleeing missionary, asking : " What 
name was that you mentioned to that woman ? " The 
missionary thought he was confronting another belligerent 
fellow worse than the amazon ; but Jerry continued : "I 
used to love that name in prison long ago, but I lost Him. 
I wish I knew where to find Him again ! " 

Mr. Little got him to sign the pledge, but he soon broke 
it, and was again on the road to crime when again he met 
the missionary. " Jerry, where are you going ? " "I can't 
starve," was the sullen answer. " I will pawn my coat 
for you, Jerry, before I will see you steal." A glance at 
the coat, which would not have brought a half dollar at a 
pawn shop, gave Jerry McAuley a glimpse into the un- 
selfishness of love, and he said, " If you love me that way, 



358 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

I'll die before I steal." Mr. Little gave him that promise of 
God to live by and live on, which has sustained many a 
sinking soul : " Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His 
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto 
you." He said, " I'll take it," and that very night he 
parted from his companion in thievery. Even yet, his 
backsliding was only in part arrested, until he sacrificed 
his last idol, tobacco, and after that he never fell again. 
Four years later, he began the Water Street work. 

The Lord gave Jerry a grand helper in his faithful wife, 
who became at this time a convert to grace. The begin- 
nings of their mission work were small and humble, but 
the work was of God. The methods were novel in their 
very simplicity. There was no rant or cant, no icy for- 
mality or fashionable rigidity. It was a hand-to-hand 
contact for soul saving. Any and every man and woman 
who wanted salvation, or was willing to hear the good 
news, was welcome, but cranks, impostors, disturbers of 
the peace found the atmosphere uncongenial. Jerry, 
sometimes, had desperate fellows to deal with, who were 
the devil's own agents to break up his meetings, but in 
God's name he grappled with them, and seemed to have 
the strength of Samson and the courage of Joshua. Per- 
secution was not lacking. Coals of fire were literally 
flung on McAuley and his wife when they ventured into 
the street. They were arraigned in court as disturbers of 
the peace they were seeking to make, and but for friendly 
intervention would more than once have got — where Paul 
and Silas did at Philippi — into jail. The work went on, 
though human malice and Satanic might united to crush 
it. The old building was torn down in 1876, and the 
present one took its place. Then, six years later, the Cre- 
morne McAuley Mission, 104 W. 32d street, was begun, 
and there he finished his course, leaving both missions to 
other hands, by whom they are carried on in like manner. 



RESCUE MISSIONS 359 

Those who feel an interest may find in two books the 
outline of this history of a quarter century rescue work.* 
Better still, let any who can, visit the mission, where a 
warm welcome will await them. There the convict is as 
much at home as the most respectable citizen, and as sure 
of a handshake, with Gospel love behind it. There he will 
find food, clothing, lodging, if he needs them, and better 
still, hope for a new life. He will not be put through a 
catechism, nor bored with a homily, nor placed under es- 
pionage. He will be trusted — a strange experience for one 
who has always been suspected. He will find a Christian 
atmosphere, but not a pious hot-house where religious life 
is forced upon him. Many a criminal and outcast has found 
there a home — and felt the touch of a fraternal hand, an 
unvarying and indiscriminate kindness. Are not this 
kindness and confidence abused sometimes? Certainly, 
often. But love is not discouraged. It " beareth all 
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth 
all things. Love never faileth." The poor thief steals, 
and then steals away — but he comes back — there is no 
other resting place. Perhaps hunger and want drive him 
back, but he meets no reproaches, or upbraidings. He 
may sin seventy times seven times, but the forgiveness 
that awaits him has no limit, because it is patterned after 
the model shown in the Mount. And so the same results 
follow as have ever followed where Calvary is reflected — 
Christ draws all unto Him. Hard hearts are broken, 
habits of vice and crime are abandoned, wrecked lives — 
and worse, wrecked characters — are not put in dry-dock 
for caulking and painting and remodeling, but forsaken, 
like a sinking old hulk, for a new life and character in 



* Read "Jerry McAuley, His Life and Work." Edited by Rev. R. M. 
Offord. Published by The N. Y. Observer, Fifth Avenue. Also, " Down in 
Water-Street for Twenty-five Years," by S. H. Hadley, Supt. Apply to 
Mr. Hadley, 316 Water Street, N. Y. 



3 6o FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

Christ. In two weeks a man or woman is sometimes 
transformed beyond recognition, even in the face, and 
tempters and seducers and procurers become soul winners. 

Water Street Mission early learned that methods com- 
monly in use wijl not suffice there. The work of saving 
drunkards and thieves and harlots was undertaken, not as 
a bit of polite philanthropy, nor even of Christian duty, 
but under the divine impulse of passion for souls. No 
kid gloves there to act as non-conductors — but a bare hand 
with holy love to give a sympathetic grasp. Front seats 
and best seats reserved, not for the gold ring and goodly 
apparel, but for the vile raiment and sin-scarred face. 
The fundamental law of soul saving there is that you 
must be in close touch with those whom you would reach. 
And the history of these twenty-five years proves that 
some men and women, who were apparently not worth the 
effort to save, who were like the dog and the sow that re- 
turn to their own vices and wallowings, have, by grace, 
become the most heroic and successful evangelists and 
missionaries and soul savers, because they knew and felt 
what it was to be hopelessly and helplessly lost and know 
and feel what it is to be both saved and kept. 

The superintendent of the Water Street Mission is him- 
self a man gloriously saved from the lowest hell of drunk- 
enness. No wonder he can sympathize. He glories in a 
" Sinners' Club House/' where the doors are always open 
and the work never stops. The devil's castaways are wel- 
come there. When a man is kicked out of all the dens 
of infamy and iniquity, because he is of no more use, and 
nothing more can be got out of him, he is received with 
open arms. The mission belongs to no church or denomi- 
nation ; its field is the world, especially the worst part of it, 
and its working force the whole Church of Christ, es- 
pecially the best part of it. Those who visit that mission 
see how the cross is still the hope for the dying 



RESCUE MISSIONS 361 

thief and the seven-demoned Magdalen; and how the 
Pentecostal fire is the secret still of all holy witness and 
work of God. Would you like to speak to such men and 
women? No rhetoric or eloquence is demanded — it 
would be out of place. Go and tell what Jesus has done 
for you, and let there be a grip in your testimony. You 
will find men and women who will come and kneel down 
by those " tear-stained benches," and give themselves up 
to the Gospel of grace to be created anew in Christ Jesus. 
Every night in the year you may find some one over whom 
heaven is set ringing with new praises and songs of joy. 

And yet this mission has to struggle with debt! Are 
there none among the children of God, whose eyes read 
these pages, who will send offerings of love in money or 
clothing to Mr. Hadley for the men who, in destitution, are 
seeking to be clothed in respectable garments, befitting the 
newly-clothed soul? 

Mr. F. N. Charrington was born in Bow Road, in the 
East End of London, February 4, 1850. The great brew- 
ery of Charrington, Head & Co., is situated in the Mile 
End Road, and covers an immense space of ground. To a 
share in this lucrative concern he was born. 

At an early age he was placed in a school in Brighton, 
and at Brighton College, finished his curriculum of edu- 
cation, and after leaving school, went on a continental 
tour. His father offered to send him either to Oxford or 
Cambridge University, but this he declined, and com- 
menced learning the business at once by becoming a pupil 
of Neville, Reed & Co., brewers to the Queen, at Windsor. 

After remaining at Windsor for twelve months, Mr. 
Charrington entered his father's brewery. Soon after this 
he accompanied his parents on another tour on the Conti- 
nent, and on this occasion he met with Mr. William Rains- 
ford, son of the Rev. Marcus Rainsford, of Belgrave 
Chapel. They traveled in company on the return 



362 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

journey, during which Mr. Charrington invited his young 
friend to visit him at his father's house at Wimbledon. 

During this visit Mr. Rainsford spoke to Mr. Charring- 
ton about his soul, and plainly asked him if he knew, 
whether he was saved. Mr. Charrington protested 
against such a subject being brought up, especially after 
such a pleasant time spent on the Continent. Mr. Rains- 
ford, however, pressed home the question, and made Mr. 
Charrington promise he. would read the third of John when 
alone. The next night he fulfilled his promise, and while 
thinking over the passage, he recalled the following inci- 
dent: 

On one occasion while staying at Hastings, he met with 
a young friend, Mr. Manning, who was visiting that water- 
ing place with his tutor, and who at the moment of meet- 
ing, had just been hearing Lord Radstock preach. Mr. 
Canning related how he had been converted at the meet- 
ing, and was now a saved man. To Mr. Charrington all 
this was simply a riddle, and he thought it was at least 
indecorous for a youthful aristocrat to go and hear a Dis- 
senter, even though that Dissenter was himself an aris- 
tocrat. When thus, two years later, he sat down to read the 
Gospel in the solitude of his own room, this came back 
fresh into his mind, for he thought it was strange that two 
of his friends of a similar age should agree in giving a cer- 
tain passage the same singular interpretation. As he read, 
however, the light came: and he now looks back to this 
hour as the one when he received the truth and became a 
believer in the Lord Jesus. 

Mr. Charrington at once became possessed with new 
desires and ideas. He first spoke to an old school-fellow, 
a young lawyer, who was converted at school. " Christ 
died for us," argued Mr. Charrington ; " and we ought 
to do something for Him/' Soon afterwards he waited 



RESCUE MISSIONS 363 

upon the Rector and Rural Dean of Stepney, who, while 
encouraging his application for work, could think of noth- 
ing more effective than a night school. 

The young convert was glad in any way to make a be- 
ginning. His days were occupied in the great brewery, 
while his evenings were spent in the night school. At 
this time he became acquainted with two men who were 
carrying on in the immediate neighborhood a work of a 
more evangelistic character among the rough boys in a 
hay-loft. 

Mr. Charrington thought, as he stood and listened: 
' This is far more like real work for the Lord than my 
own more secular night-school work." At the close of the 
service the singing made such an impression upon him 
that he again sought an opportunity of visiting the work in 
the hay-loft, and at once proposed that they should join 
forces. 

Up to this time Mr. Charrington had remained in the 
brewery, but momentous changes were at hand. He was 
now heart and soul in his new work, but his conscience 
was not at rest. Wherever he went he saw his father's 
name in connection with the firm, printed on large sign- 
boards over the various public houses. He began to wit- 
ness sights that touched his heart. He saw drunken 
fathers, gin-drinking mothers, ill-used children whose 
worst enemies were those whom God designed to be their 
natural protectors. There might seem to be light, warmth 
and cordials within ; but brawls ana* fights spoiled the 
glitter ; and then above all he read, " Charrington, Head 
& Co., Entire." 

In addition to this, the lads were continually asking him 
questions about the drink, that were not at all likely to 
make his conscience more at ease ; his visitations to the 
homes of the poor revealed a state of things that he had 



364 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

never dreamed of ; and he began to feel that, as a brewer, 
he was pulling down with one hand what, as a Christian 
worker, he was building up with the other. 

The crisis came. Mr. Charrington told his father that 
he could have nothing more to do with the business of the 
brewery. The decision came so unexpectedly that it was 
a great blow to the family. He renounced his trade with 
its golden prospects, without asking about the conse- 
quences, and was allowed to retire in quietness. On his 
death-bed the father expressed his approval of the course 
his son had taken, altho in his will (which had previously 
been made) the share in his father's brewery was offered 
for his acceptance, with an alternative of a sum of money 
sufficient to produce an income to maintain him for life. 

Mr. Charrington's withdrawal from the brewery created 
considerable commotion. His temperance friends invited 
him to take the chair at the Annual Meeting of the Band of 
Hope Union at Exeter Hall. On the night of the meeting 
(February 18, 1873) the streets outside were crowded; 
the crush within was very great, the cheering was deafen- 
ing, and the waving of hats and handkerchiefs was to be 
seen all over the hall, while many hearts were uplifted in 
earnest prayer that the young man might be kept true to 
the profession he had made, and become pre-eminently 
useful in the service of Christ. 

Street preaching was a means greatly used of God from 
the outset. The work now began to get known, and the 
parents of several boys, seeing the change in their chil- 
dren's lives, came to the Mission Hall to see this young 
converted brewer, as Mr. Charrington was called. Then 
they asked permission to stay to the service themselves, till 
they came in such numbers that a separate meeting had to 
be held for them. Soon after this, an iron building, to 
seat 500 persons, was erected by the late Mr. Pemberton 
Barnes, in Carleton Sq., Globe Road, and given over to 



RESCUE MISSIONS 365 

Mr. Charrington for adult work. This effort succeeded 
so well that Mr. Charrington hired a tent, and placed it 
upon a site in the main thoroughfare of the Mile End 
Road, and here a great work for God was done, and many 
souls saved. 

A still better site was afterwards purchased, and in 
order to lose no time, a large circular tent was put up and 
opened in May, 1876. 

In 1877 a temporary building of brick, wood, and cor- 
rugated iron — being part of the Hall in which Messrs. 
Moody and Sankey held their services on their first visit 
to London — was substituted for the tent, and formed one 
of the most noteworthy features in the Mile End Road ; not 
on account of its beauty, for utility supplanted all such 
considerations ; but principally by reason of its size, and of 
the great eagerness displayed by the crowds of East Lon- 
don to obtain admission. 

The great Assembly Hall has always had one distin- 
guishing characteristic, — a characteristic which it shares 
with no other public building of the kind in the Metropo- 
lis. Since its erection it has been open every night, all the 
year round. 

The work had now grown so much that a larger build- 
ing was needed. The regular attendants at the Hall — 
poor as they are — feeling this great need, contributed in 
small sums upwards of $1,500 to the Building Fund; 
$45,000 was laid out in the erection of frontage buildings, 
covering a site 90 feet in width and 43 feet in depth. 
They comprise a spacious Coffee Palace, which is self- 
supporting, and supplies all the attractions of the public 
house without the intoxicating drink; a Book Saloon, 
where pure literature is sold, counteracting the pernicious 
influences of the well-named " penny horribles ; " and, on 
three upper floors, various club rooms and offices, Young 
Men's Christian Association and Young Women's Chris- 



366 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

tian Association Rooms, Building Societies, Coal Club, 
Provident Club, Phcenix Order, Temperance Society, 
Singing and Violin Classes, Benefit Club, etc., etc. Three 
fine entrances, one on either side and the third in the 
center, lead into a vestibule of octagonal shape, and of 
what is considered a perfect design for the purpose, the 
number of exits being great. Behind the vestibule stands 
the New Hall, holding nearly 5,000 persons. On Sunday 
nights its accommodation is none too ample, hundreds 
often being unable to get in. 

The Hall has a height of nearly 50 feet in the clear ; and 
a depth of 154 feet, the width being 70 feet. There are 
three galleries, with double platforms, and space for 
organ and choirs. The ceiling is nearly flat, for sound, 
with covered sides. This Hall, apart from the frontage, 
has cost $100,000. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

THE ELEVATION OF ORPHANS AND OUTCAST CHILDREN 

Of the efforts made in this direction we give two notable 
examples, both of them described in the language of 
others: first the Little Republic at Freeville, N. Y., and 
the other the Orphan Colony at Bridge of Weir, Scot- 
land. 

Of the former, Mr. Delavan L. Pierson has written: 

Mr. William R. George, a New York business man, who 
for years had taken a deep interest in the boys of the slums, 
devised a plan whereby they could be taken out of their de- 
grading surroundings and placed where they might have 
every opportunity for learning the art of self-control, and 
be taught Christian ideals of life and service. 

Mr. George had studied the boys from their social and 
industrial side, and in the boys' clubs had come to under- 
stand and love them. Requesting appointment as special 
detective, he studied them also from their criminal side. 
Moved by their poverty and the degraded character of 
their surroundings, he planned to give some of them a 
summer outing on a country farm in Freeville, Tompkins 
County, N. Y., near his boyhood home. The first year he 
" aired " fifty and the second year two hundred of them, 
but physical vigor seemed to be gained without corre- 
sponding advance in moral character, and it soon became 
clear that they came merely for what they could get, and 
felt justified in claiming as their due whatever they might 
wish to ask for. The result was that they were being 
pauperized. Incorrigible at home, they were as bad 

367 



368 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

under their changed conditions, and all rules and require- 
ments were deliberately broken. Neither corporal nor 
any other form of punishment availed to prevent evil- 
doing. Mr. George had recourse even to substitutionary 
punishment, himself taking the lashes deserved by the 
boys. But swearing, gambling, stealing, and other vices 
continued to flourish. 

Much of the pauperizing evil was done away with dur- 
ing the fourth summer, when the children were obliged 
to work for the clothes or gifts which they wished to carry 
back to the city. Most of them, however, chose to go 
without rather than sacrifice their leisure. One day the 
adult overseer, being obliged to absent himself for a time, 
Mr. George hesitatingly placed in charge one of the older 
boys, a leader among his mates. To his amazement, the 
discipline and order was markedly better. To these boys 
the law, and its most familiar exponent, the " cop," are 
institutions to be outwitted., evaded and duped, as are all 
superiors and supervisors. But when one of their own 
number assumed command, all this was changed. There 
was no glory to be had from outwitting an equal, but a 
great deal of ignominy in suffering punishment at his 
hands. This experience led Mr. George to inaugurate 
trial by jury for all offenses, with a penalty of fines to 
be paid by a certain number of hours of work. He found 
among the boys a spirit of justice, tempered by mercy, 
which was a revelation to him. He, however, still kept 
tight grasp of the helm, appointing the jurors himself, 
and often personally superintending the penal labor. In 
1895 he gave up his business in New York, deciding that 
no permanent good could be done when the boys were 
with him so short a time. He, therefore, resolved to keep 
as many as would stay through the winter. The success 
of the boys in administering their laws led to the idea of 
allowing them to make their own laws as well. Thus, as 



ORPHANS AND DESTITUTE CHILDREN 369 

by an inspiration, the whole scheme of the Junior Re- 
public, with its bread-earning, law-making, and law-exe- 
cuting citizens, was born July 10, 1895. 

The government of the Republic is a democracy of the 
citizens, by the citizens, and for the citizens, even more 
truly than is our greater republic, since the extremes of 
poverty and wealth are not present to deflect the course 
of righteous government. The constitution is modeled 
after that of the United States, the laws are those of the 
State of New York, and the form of local government 
contains many features of municipalities. At present Mr. 
George acts as president. Cabinet officers are elected by 
the citizens, good, moral standing in the commuunity be- 
ing a prime requisite in candidates for office. The chief 
of police draws the highest salary, but candidates for 
this and all other appointive positions are required to pass 
a civil service examination. There is at present rather a 
rapid rotation in office, but as the number of citizens in- 
creases, the term of office may more safely be lengthened.* 

All tenure of office is dependent upon upright be- 
havior. It is the ambition of every boy to attain to the 
distinction of the vertically striped trousers. Most of them 
would rather be " cop " than president. In 1896 a force 
of fourteen policemen were necessary to preserve order, 
but now the state is encumbered with the support of but 
two. The positions of chief justice, civil service commis- 
sioner, board of health commissioner, sheriff — in short, 
nearly every office connected with our complicated city 
and state organizations — has its counterpart in this Junior 
Republic, excepting that of coroner. There is even an of- 
ficer detailed in the early fall to compel lazy truants to 
attend school. 



* According to the constitution, adopted March 8, 1898, representatives held 
office one month, senators three months, and president one year. Since Jan. 
1, 1899, a town meeting has taken the place of the two houses of congress as 
the legislative body. 



370 FORWARD MOVEMENTb 

The number of citizens is necessarily limited In June, 
1898, there were forty-four boys and seven girls ; eight of 
the number were minors. The regulation of the summer 
citizens, who formerly came for July and August, was a 
difficult problem, and this feature of the work has now 
been abandoned. They came in great numbers from 
haunts of unrestrained evil, and they did not stay long 
enough to become imbued with the spirit of honorable self- 
support, nor to acquire love for the institutions of their 
adopted state, yet, because of their superior numbers, they 
often ran the legislature, or at least had great influence in 
that body. But to deny them the rights of citizenship 
would have been to set aside the very foundation principles 
of the republic. To remedy this evil, Mr. George proposed 
to found another state, to be composed almost entirely of 
summer citizens, with a few all-year residents for ballast. 
The farm is a large one, containing fifty acres, and there 
would be ample room for such division, if the additional 
expense could be met. 

A new citizen generally spends much of his first month 
in jail for offenses of one sort or another, after which it 
takes a month of exemplary conduct to qualify him to hold 
any office; thus, if his stay is only three months long, he 
leaves just as he and the state are beginning to reap the 
rewards of his well-doing. 

The citizens of the Republic are largely New Yorkers, 
as Mr. George's previous work was with the boys of the 
East Side of that city, but there are numerous sources of 
supply. Parents whose children are wayward and dis- 
obedient, police whose lives are made miserable by little 
incorrigibles, heads of reformatories who acknowledge 
their inability to restrain or improve their vicious young 
charges, and judges of county courts, who, after a boy 
has served a sentence or two without improvement, turn 
him over to Mr. George that he may be checked in his 



ORPHANS AND DESTITUTE CHILDREN 371 

career of crime — these, together with the Society for Pre- 
vention of Cruelty to Children, send to the Junior Republic 
material, which, altho most unpromising at first, is de- 
veloped in a year or two into upright, steady, and usually 
Christian citizens, who often go out to assume positions 
of trust in the business world. As is usual with such suc- 
cessful enterprises, there are about four hundred more 
applicants than can be accommodated, one great difficulty 
usually being the regular supply of funds to carry on the 
work.* 

Twelve years is accounted the age of majority, all under 
twelve being minors without full citizenship. These latter 
are under guardians appointed by the state from among 
the older boys and girls, who must render account to the 
state for their stewardship. Many of these guardians 
have shown themselves to be wise, tactful, and loving care- 
takers of the little ones entrusted to their charge. When 
the minors can not fully support themselves, their guar- 
dians must look out^for them, so that the state is not en- 
cumbered with their support. This fact alone bespeaks 
unselfishness in the citizens who assume the care of mi- 
nors. 

One little fellow only nine years old, who had already 
been found guilty in five cases of arson, and two of theft, 
was sent to Freeville, and given into the care of a lad of 
thirteen with fatherly instincts. This lad took the boy into 
his room, and spoke to him lovingly of the past, and of 
his desire to make a man of him, and then knelt at his 
side and prayed for help. The little chap is still at the 
Republic, and is now one of the most active Christians 
there. In prayer meeting his childlike testimony or prayer 
is seldom wanting. Last winter he confided to Mrs. 



* The Republic is supported by voluntary contributions, five dollars a year 
constituting a member of the association, $25 yearly a sustaining member, 
and $250 a life member. Mr. A. G. Agnew, 7 Nassau street, New York, is the 
treasurer, to whom donations of.clothing, books, or money should be sent. 



372 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

George a little struggle which he had had with himself. 
It was zero weather, and he had undressed and crawled 
into bed under the warm blankets as quickly as possible. 
" I remembered," said the boy, " that I had not said my 
prayers. It was so awful cold, I thought I wouldn't get 
up. Then the old devil began to jolly me and tell me I 
was a good boy, and hadn't done anything much that was 
bad that day. He kept on talking that way, till he almost 
talked me to sleep. Then I roused up like, and I prayed 
the Lord to help me down the old devil, and I got strength, 
and just jumped out of bed and made my prayer, and then 
I knew that I had downed the old devil." 

As has already been mentioned, a small portion of the 
citizens are girls. This will undoubtedly seem to some to 
be radically opposed to all established reformatory prin- 
ciples. Yet the results without exception have been more 
than satisfactory. One girl who had been dismissed from 
an institution on account of her frequent night escapades 
with boys is now a trusted industrious helper in the Re- 
public. Mr. George has no hesitation in giving her per- 
mission to attend the midweek services at the village 
church a mile away, and one of the boys is despatched at 
nine o'clock to bring her safely home. When she first 
arrived her actions were so uncouth and vulgar as to at- 
tract the notice of all. The boys shunned her, and one 
and another came to Mr. George in confidence to say that 
they did not like the new girl's actions and would have 
to keep an eye on her. Shortly after, one of the girls came 
expressing the same opinion, but added, " I am going to 
try and win her, and make her see that her life is all wrong." 
Under the influence of this little friend, letters written 
to boys were never sent, and an honest shame and pen- 
itence filled her and she was saved from physical and 
spiritual ruin. 

Another girl, whose mother had died, was sent to the 



ORPHANS AND DESTITUTE CHILDREN 373 

Republic by her father, who had no control over her. At 
the time of our visit she had just returned home to nurse 
her father through an illness and most encouraging letters 
had been received from her, full of loving solicitude for 
her father and a desire to atone for her years of wilful- 
ness and disobedience. 

The woman suffrage question at the Republic is es- 
sentially one of taxation without representation, since the 
girls have no husbands, fathers, or brothers to represent 
them and protect their interests in the legislature, and the 
question has had varying fortunes. On the first of July 
all amendments which were not reenacted were formally 
declared null and void, so that the woman suffrage law, 
being necessarily an amendment of a state law, passed 
through a yearly crisis and struggle for existence. The 
unfair apportionment of an imposed tax two years ago 
made the girls petition for the ballot once more, and at 
the next meeting of the legislature woman suffrage pre- 
vailed. 

The latest improved ballot is used at all their elections. 
Boys who have learned the value of the ballot at the Re- 
public will not lightly give up their privilege of casting 
their personal vote, and the tactics of the ward politician 
will be much better understood by those young citizens 
than by their ignorant parents. One boy gave expression 
to these thoughts when he said, " I tell youse, I've been a 
citizen meself, an' Jimmy O'Brien won't never lead me 
around by de nose like he leads me fadder. I knows a ting 
or two about politics meself, see ! " 

Laws wise and otherwise find their way into the stat- 
ute book of the Junior Republic; but as each law is 
strictly enforced, it takes but a short time to test the wis- 
dom or folly of a new measure. At first very lenient pau- 
per laws were passed. The paupers were fed at the ex- 
pense of the state, altho in a humiliating manner, at a 



374 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

second table from which the cloth and other accessories 
had been removed, and portions were served like prison 
rations. But there were some boys who had but little 
self-respect, and as long as the food was plentiful, they 
preferred to idle away their time and be dependent upon 
the state. Having no income they were practically tax 
free except the insignificant poll-tax which is levied upon 
all. It was not long before the industrious citizens and 
taxpayers began to realize the expense which idlers in- 
curred to the state. Finally a senator., whose own parents 
at home were wholly dependent upon city charity, sub- 
mitted a bill to the legislature to the effect that those 
who would not work should not eat. The lazy poor were 
thus deprived of support, but those who through illness 
were unable to work were provided with meal tickets. 

An amusing incident happened in connection with the 
enforcement of this law. There were three restaurants at 
the time in the Republic, one furnishing meals for fifteen 
cents, another for twenty-five cents, and a third an elabo- 
rate fifty-cent dinner.* When the meal tickets were 
distributed, they simply read, " Good for one meal," 
not designating the restaurant. Of course, the fifty- 
cent restaurant was uniformly patronized, and when 
the hotel-keeper's bill was rendered to the government, 
there was hardly money enough to pay, and the state was 
in sore straits for a time. It is needless to say that this 
happened but once. 

Since the laws of New York State are their models, they 
may not exceed the state fines for any offense. In one 
case the legislature passed a law that swearing, or the 
use of any improper language, should be fined $5. But 
a prisoner arrested on this charge contested the validity 



* In all references to money in this article the coin of the George Junior 
Republic is the standard of value. These coins are made of tin, and, of 
course, have only a local and nominal value. 



ORPHANS AND DESTITUTE CHILDREN 375 

of the law, since the laws of New York State place the 
fine at $1, and the law was revised. 

A heavy fine was imposed on cigarette smoking^ but 
nevertheless boys would often steal away beyond the po- 
liceman's beat, and indulge this lawless habit. Conse- 
quently an amendment was passed, which made a citizen 
liable to arrest and punishment if the smell of smoke could 
be detected in his breath. The penalty is a fine from 
$1 to $3, or from one to three days in the workhouse. 

Gambling of any sort receives no quarter from the 
officials. The first boy caught " shooting craps " was a 
senator, and even tho he pleaded guilty, the judge fined 
him $25. He refused to pay. He lost not only his state 
position, but also his rights of citizenship, and was obliged 
to don the striped suit and break stone at five cents an 
hour. One night as Mr. George was passing down the 
prison corridor, he spoke to the boy, kindly and earnestly, 
and advised him to pay up and get out of prison. " No, I 
won't do it," the boy answered; and then with the ready 
wit of the street urchin, he added : " I guess I'll take the 
smallpox and break out." Some days later, as he was 
breaking stone, he threw, down his hammer, threw up his 
hands in a tragic manner, and exclaimed : " I surrender ! 
March me to me bank account." 

When we reflect that these laws against swearing, im- 
purity, gambling, and smoking — vices which are the very 
life of the criminal classes — with their heavy penalties at- 
tached, are of the boys' own making, and are enforced with 
a rigor which bespeaks a strong public sentiment against 
this evil, we gain some idea of the success which has at- 
tended this effort at self-government. 

The laws in no way curtail the liberty of the citizens. 
Times for retiring at night or rising in the morning, 
are not matters of law. Early bed hours are in vogue, 
however, because of the healthy weariness following a 



376 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

day of hard work. Early rising is practiced because of the 
requirements of employers, and because the hotel pro- 
prietor objects to having his beds occupied at the expense 
of an airing. The frequent visits from the board of health 
make him apprehensive of a fine. 

The George Junior Republic is in many respects a 
model reformatory, and yet it has few of the failings and 
disadvantages which characterize the ordinary reformatory 
system. Everything is as unlike an institution as possible, 
and the citizens resent very much the application of that 
term to their enterprise. The laws being enacted and en- 
forced by the boys themselves, the punishment of the cul- 
prit is never laid at Mr. George's door. 

To the casual visitor this system might seem like play- 
ing at law-making; but it is far from play to the boys. 
It must be remembered that they are forced to abide by 
their laws, and feel their responsibility of legislating for 
their individual interest and for the welfare of their Re- 
public. Valuable lessons in parliamentary procedure and 
in debating, and in caution and in forethought, are learned 
in the Town Meeting, which has now displaced the more 
cumbersome Congress. 

It is instructive as well as interesting to notice how the 
questions which confront our greater republic come up for 
discussion and settlement in the smaller. Women's suf- 
frage, free-trade or protection, tariff, trusts, income tax, 
free " tin," pauper labor, all have presented them- 
selves. On returning from the village some boys 
brought candies, fruit, etc., which had been purchased at 
cheap rates, or had been presented to them by some kind- 
hearted farmer's wife. These they sold to their fellows at 
lower prices than the government licensed store could 
afford to furnish them. The storekeeper appealed to the 
government, and a tariff of thirty-five per cent, was laid on 
all imports. 



ORPHANS AND DESTITUTE CHILDREN 377 

The Republic has its own currency, made of flat pieces 
of tin, stamped, George Junior Republic, and in denom- 
inations from one dollar down. Silver, nickel, or copper 
can purchase nothing within the Republic. The Republic 
maintains the bank, and all official payments are made by 
means of drafts upon it. Two per cent, interest is paid 
on all deposits, and any citizen who has accumulated a 
little sum, may, on leaving the Republic, have it redeemed 
in U. S. coin at one-fifth its face value. 

The financial system of the Republic is based upon 
wages for work. Its motto is " Nothing without labor." 
The government lets out contracts of all sorts, — farming, 
road construction, landscape gardening, hotel keeping, 
etc., etc., and the contractors hire labor, paying different 
prices, according to the skill of the workmen, from fifty 
cents to one dollar and fifty a day. Wages are paid once 
a week, and no favors are shown to those workmen or 
government officials who recklessly spend their earnings 
the first few days of the week. A coarse diet and a harder 
bed await such until next pay day. 

An excellent little paper, The Junior Republic Citizen, 
is published by the boys. They write freely for it, using 
their own language and spelling, and are not held to ac- 
count for the opinions they express. It is issued monthly 
and contains reports of census and " police blotter." This 
is one of the marked features of the Republic. 

The problem of a congested labor market has never had 
to be grappled with in the Republic. There is work for 
every boy who will work. Some boys, preferring their own 
independent enterprises, have started barber-shops and 
tailoring establishments. One boy, only thirteen years old, 
being hard pressed by the hotel proprietor, announced a 
course of lectures on " The Minor Lights of History," 
Miles Standish, Captain John Smith, and John Brown, 
and altho he set his prices high (single lecture, fifty cents; 



378 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

course tickets, one dollar), the hotel corridor was rilled 
all three lecture nights. 

Another boy, much interested in natural history, made 
a collection of insects, cocoons, nests, nymphs, etc., but 
his companions would not deign to notice his collection. 
One day he announced the opening of a " Dime Museum," 
and at the appointed hour there was a line of boys reach- 
ing clear to the police station, each with his dime in his 
hand waiting for admittance. When the doors were 
opened, the show was found to consist of this same ento- 
mological collection; but the boys had paid their money, 
and so they listened attentively to the interesting ex- 
planations of the museum proprietor, and afterwards 
voted it a " huge success." 

The buildings of the Republic include : ( I ) The " Re- 
public," containing a kitchen and two restaurants, a li- 
brary, hotel, and "garroot"; (2) the school-house, bank, 
and store; (3) the court-house, jail, capitol, post-office, 
store, and Waldorf Hotel; (4) Carter cottage for boys; 
(5) Rockefeller cottage for girls; (6) business offices; 
(7) hospital; (8) barn; (9) tool-house and work-shop; 
(10) laundry and bath ; (11) dairy; (12) shoe shop; (13) 
a chapel has also been promised. Everything is exceed- 
ingly plain. It is to be hoped that this feature of the Re- 
public will never be altered, for finer surroundings would 
only breed dissatisfaction with their city homes and teach 
lessons of extravagance. Cleanliness is carefully taught 
as a habit to be practised by all classes, and a neglect of 
this virtue may bring about a fine from the Board of 
Health. 

The jail is no play house, but has small cells with veri- 
table bars and high windows, hard slat beds, and prison 
meals. A formidable constable's desk stands in a recess 
at the entrance, while almost opposite in a niche is a little 
melodeon for use in the religious services held weekly 



ORPHANS AND DESTITUTE CHILDREN 379 

in the prison corridor. Upstairs is the court room, con- 
taining, among other things, a trap door for the entrance 
of the prisoner, an imposing high desk for the judge, and 
a juror's bench. There is a small space railed off for the 
witness stand, and rows of seats for interested listeners. 
The sessions of the court are most orderly and impressive. 
The pros and cons are carefully weighed; evidence is 
called for in its proper place, and most heartstirring ap- 
peals are made to the jury. One judge walked ten miles 
to Ithaca and back again that he might attend a court 
session and learn how to conduct those of the Republic 
with proper decorum. Only one case of bribery has ever 
been discovered, and the guilty officer was immediately 
deposed and suffered disgrace as well as legal penalties. 
The rear of the court room is partitioned off into " law- 
yers' offices," and bears this prohibitory sign, " Citizens 
not allowed to climb over this partition." 

It is, perhaps, to be deplored that the court and legal 
proceedings have such a prominent place in the Junior 
Republic, but the fairness of the judgments, and the sub- 
mission of the guilty to the punishments imposed, counter- 
act, to some degree, this unfortunate feature. The police 
court must, inevitably, play a large part in the lives of 
such children, and how much better to have justice and 
equity demonstrated than bribery and harshness. 

Most of the citizens of the Junior Republic live in 
boarding-houses or hotels. These latter are two in num- 
ber, the "Republic Hotel" and the "Waldorf," (which 
is the second class hotel). The accommodations at the 
" Republic " are of two grades ; pies and cakes, and linen 
tablecloths and individual chairs go with the twenty-five 
cent meals. The " garroot " boarders are served in a sep- 
arate dining-room, with less elaborate, altho none the less 
clean surroundings. The sleeping rooms range from those 
hung with curtains and store-framed pictures to those 



380 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

whose only charms are light and air. " The garroot " has 
no individual rooms, but one long gabled loft, with a chest 
by the side of each fellow's bed to hold his wardrobe. 
Here lodge the impecunious, brought to this pass either 
by the love of play or by fondness for candy and other 
luxuries. Board must be paid in advance, and prices are 
higher, of course, for transients. 

A new plan has recently been put into operation. Two 
simple cottages have been built, each to accommodate 
twelve boys or girls, who constitute a family, with a 
motherly woman as " house mother." All work toward 
the support of the homes, the girls doing the mending and 
housework, the boys, like older brothers, supplying the 
needful money. The householders pay Mr George a nom- 
inal rent. One cottage has recently been sold to eight boys 
for $1,200. They paid $200 down, and Mr. George holds 
a mortgage for the remainder. 

There is a library, a memorial gift, and the shelves con- 
tain over 1,200 volumes: fiction, history, science, poetry, 
essays, and reference and religious books, with some juve- 
nile books and many leading periodicals. The most 
thumbed books of all are those which treat of the penal 
and civil code of New York State. 

The problem of book study for the winter residents has 
given Mr. George some difficulty. It goes without saying 
that all the citizens are in need of education, and the Re- 
public school is now a part of the country school system 
of the State. Attendance upon this school is obligatory 
by the law of the Republic, and a truant officer gathers in 
any who " play hookey," Several members of the Re- 
public attend the high school of a neighboring village, and 
three have now entered Cornell. The civil service ex- 
aminations, which cover all the ordinary branches, debar 
the ignorant and the inattentive from holding the coveted 
position of the police or judge, health commissioner, 



ORPHANS AND DESTITUTE CHILDREN 381 

sheriff, or any other appointive office. This gives im- 
portance and attractiveness to " education/' which the 
street gamin has never before conceived possible. He 
learns that education means power. 

Church and State are separate in the Junior Republic, 
and there is no legislation bearing directly on religious 
matters, but the founder being a man of strong religious 
convictions, such an atmosphere of godliness emanates 
from " the capitol " that the citizens are unconsciously 
affected by it. Roman Catholics attend a little Catholic 
church near by, and Protestants go to the village Metho- 
dist church and Sunday-school. The citizens have also 
organized among themselves a Christian Endeavor So- 
ciety, and it would be hard to find a more earnest little 
band, altho of opposing creeds and diverse beliefs. Little 
Roman Catholic children attend mass in the morning, and, 
perhaps, lead or take part in a regular Christian Endeavor 
prayer-meeting in the afternoon. A falling off in church 
attendance was noticed at one time, and the legislature 
provided that a missionary should be appointed, whose 
duty it should be to visit delinquents, urge upon them the 
duty and privilege of church worship, and to warn the 
erring. 

Especially solemn and impressive are the meetings held 
in the jail corridor for the prisoners. In the midst of one 
meeting a little girl was seen to slip out quietly, and in a 
few moments returned with her arms full of Bibles and 
prayer-books. Going to each cell, she discriminated be- 
tween the Protestant and the Roman Catholic prisoners, 
giving the former a Bible and the latter a prayer-book, 
with a tender word of encouragement to read it. 

Family prayers are daily held, led sometimes by one 
of the older helpers, but as often by a citizen. God's bless- 
ing is also asked at table, usually by one of their own 
number. 



382 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

We believe that Mr. George has taken a wise course in 
the religious conduct of his miniature republic. His 
helpers are all Christians, who have entered upon the work 
with the missionary spirit — an earnest desire to win these 
boys and girls for Christ. Six days in the week, at the 
carpenter bench, or on the farm, or over the stove, or at 
the machine, they patiently help to solve the knotty prob- 
lems of manufacture or cultivation, and on the seventh 
set an example of restful worship and meditation which 
is not lost on their young charges. Quiet heart to heart 
talks are continually bearing fruit in the little Republic, 
unto life eternal. If attendance upon church service were 
a matter of compulsion, when everything else is free, or 
if the church were given prominence through being con- 
stituted a State church, the present well-balanced condition 
of things could not exist. 

Mr. George has expressed the conviction that any one 
of his several older citizens, who have spent two or three 
years with him, would be thoroughly competent to superin- 
tend another republic, and make it in every way as great 
a success as Freeville. If in making this statement he has 
carefully taken into account the far-reaching religious in- 
fluences of the leader, the confidence and esteem in which 
he holds these boys must be very great. 

Mr. George says that there has never been a boy, who 
has stayed at the Republic as long as he (Mr. George) 
felt he should, who has not left a thoroughly upright, self- 
dependent citizen, having learned lessons of obedience to 
law and respect for the rights of others. Of course, some 
are taken away by their parents or guardians before they 
are ripe for dismissal, and a few become rebellious and 
return of their own free will to their idle city life. Who 
can estimate the work this one little Republic is doing, in 
converting paupers and criminals into citizens who make 



ORPHANS AND DESTITUTE CHILDREN 383 

for righteousness and peace, and girls whose feet were 
already turned toward hell, into women of chaste, indus- 
trious lives? 

Two years ago Mr. George took one of the younger 
citizens to Brooklyn to speak in behalf of the Republic. 
The boy communicated his enthusiasm to his audience in 
a wonderful way. At the close a lady, with purse in hand, 
pressed up to him and offered it to the little speaker. Mr. 
George, from his position in the audience, noticed her turn 
away chagrined. In a few moments she came to him, 
saying, " Won't you take this money and use it for that 
boy." " Wouldn't he accept it? " asked Mr. George. " I 
never received such a rebuke in my life," replied the lady ; 
" when I offered it to him, he said, ' I can not take it, 
Madam, I have done nothing to earn it/ " 

When the previous history of some of the boys is 
known, the visitor's most natural question is: Have you 
ever had to expel any because of incorrigibility? The 
question always calls forth the same reply: " The worse 
the boy, the more his need of the Republic and its influ- 
ences. No; we never willingly let go of our bad boys." 

It will be seen from the foregoing account that the Jun- 
ior Republic is indeed a model reformatory. Amid whole- 
some surroundings, and under judicious Christian man- 
agement, the boys and girls are taught self-control, self- 
help, obedience to law, the blessing of service to others, 
and are given every opportunity to become honorable 
Christian citizens in our larger republic. 

The principles upon which the Junior Republic are 
founded are sound, and are the outcome of years of study 
of the city street gamin; but even with such a complete 
system, not every one could successfully carry on such a 
republic. The principles of self-help and self-govern- 
ment among the boys must be wisely recognized by a 



384 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

Christian governor, and a consistent course of non-inter- 
ference practised at the same time that a vigilant outlook 
is kept. 

Some minor phases of the Republic's life are still in 
their experimental stage, but the Republic itself has passed 
beyond that stage and has clearly vindicated its right to 
exist, and to be supported by the interest and prayers and 
gifts of the Christian people of our land. It is philan- 
thropic work without any of the pauperizing tendencies 
of ordinary philanthropy, and, on the other hand, it does 
away with the opportunity of self-gratulation, which mars 
so much of our charitable work. The sense of personal 
responsibility for law and order, is visible in each sun- 
burned freckled face of the citizens, and boys who have 
had a common education in dodging police, will legislate 
and oversee with a sharpness in which the ordinary adult 
is pitifully deficient. 

If the Republic stopped short of being a Christian en- 
terprise, there would be no opportunity for the highest 
forms of altruism. With pauper laws that are inexorable, 
with competition that is sharp, altho friendly, with a de- 
cided spirit of self-interest and preservation, there would 
be developed only a high sense of justice and a healthy 
regard for the rights of others. But, lifted to the plane 
of Christianity, the opportunities of visiting the sick and 
the imprisoned, the faithful exercise of guardianship and 
the repression of covetousness and jealousy, all give op- 
portunity for the exercise of the highest altruism in ac- 
cordance with the teaching of Christ. 

It is very evident that the love which Mr. George has 
for his boys and girls is heartily reciprocated. No thief 
ever steals from him. The tender accent they give to the 
word " Daddy " when they speak of him, and the confident 
manner in which they approach him to ask a question, to 
tell him of some loss, or inquire for a missing companion ; 



ORPHANS AND DESTITUTE CHILDREN 385 

the alacrity with which they run on little errands for him, 
and the stream of evening callers to bid him good-night 
before retiring, all speak loudly of the love which they 
bear toward him. As the last one bade him good-night 
and left him, with a look of satisfaction, Mr. George 
turned to us a beaming face and said, " I wouldn't change 
places with any one in the world; I believe I'm the hap- 
piest man alive." 

We subjoin an interesting letter published in The Chris- 
tian, Jan. 4, 1900, on a visit to Scotland's orphans, at Mr. 
Quarrier's village, Bridge-of-Weir. 

A group of little ones passed the house, their happy faces 
turning radiant at the sight of Mrs. Findlay, who threw hand- 
kisses to them, saying, " These are some of our infant orphans." 
"Why, you have no uniforms, then?" said I. " No, father does 
not believe in uniform dressing. It puts the stamp of pauperism 
upon the children whom we wish to save for society. We do 
not like them to think that they are different from the others. 
Each child is dealt with individually, watched and observed, and 
when the time comes for choosing a trade or a profession, we 
know something of the proclivities of each." 

Anxious that no individuality should be lost sight oi Mr. 
Quarrier avoids uniformity even in buildings. Of the fifty-seven 
Homes which form this " City of the Young," each presents the 
aspect of a residential villa, with distinct architectural features 
of its own, and a garden-plot adjoining it. Prizes are given to 
the Homes that have the best-kept gardens. This system was first 
objected to on the ground that it involved expenditure; but in 
the course of time the founder was able to show that taste and 
beauty, as well as variety, could be effected within the limits of 
a strict and true economy. For £12 a year, on an average, an 
orphan is housed, fed, and educated. 

The ten-roomed Homes are occupied by thirty inmates or less. 
Girls are under the supervision of a mother. A married couple 
has the charge of the boys, who, in their spare time, are taught 
a trade by the father. 

As this was the usual half-holiday, we missed seeing the chil- 
dren at work in the Homes; but, being shown round, could easily 
imagine their beehive-life during the week. From James Arthur,, 



386 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

an iron brig of over 120 ft. in length, the generous gift of a widow 
lady in memory of her husband, we saw some of the juvenile 
crew playing football by the banks of the river Gryffe. They re- 
side with their captain on board the brig, erected on a firm bed 
of concrete, and are taught navigation, as far as it can be taught, 
on dry land. Mr. Quarrier hopes thus to raise up some mis- 
sionary seamen. 

In passing some ruins we learned that, owing to the break-out 
of fire on October 19, all the workshops had been destroyed, in- 
cluding the laundry, bakery, joiner's, shoemaker's, printer's, and 
tailor's shops. 

At the great store — where, as everywhere, cleanliness, neatness, 
and order are observed — forty-eight dozen loaves of bread pass 
over the counter every day, and the total per month is about eight 
tons of flour, two and a-half tons of meal, and one ton of sugar. 
Much of the wearing apparel is sent in by kind friends, but the 
largest part is manufactured on the premises. " The Lord will 
provide " is the motto carved in stone over the entrance to the 
building. 

With Mr. Quarrier it was trusting in the Lord all the way 
through. Without ever applying directly to anybody, or asking 
help from bazaars or entertainments, he always had his needs 
provided in due season . Here is his testimony : — 

" We passed through many a sore trial. We were often short 
of money, but never needed to stint food to our children for lack 
of provisions," said he, as we sat down by the fireside. " This 
work is a standing rebuke to those who deny a prayer-hearing 
and a prayer-answering God." 

Yes, truth is stranger than fiction. There is much more ro- 
mance in the life of a child of God than there is in the most 
exotic imagination of a novelist. Let us listen to him as he re- 
calls the principal points in his career. 

He knew what property was, and what it meant to lose a father 
in early life. Feeling keenly in his own experience the lot of 
others, he made, like Abraham Lintoln, only much earlier in life, 
a resolution which he never forgot : " Mother, when I am a big 
man I shall build a home for orphans just like me." This was 
said one day in the High Street of Glasgow fifty-eight years ago. 
Years rolled by, and the little boy was becoming a successful busi- 
ness man, when he took the first step towards the accomplishment 
of his childish desire, by establishing, in 1864, the Glasgow Shoe- 



ORPHANS AND DESTITUTE CHILDREN 387 

black Brigade, which had for its object the gathering in and as- 
sisting of the little street arabs of Glasgow. 

The work grew, and seven years later the Lord sent him, in 
answer to prayer, £2,000, which enabled him to open the first Or- 
phan's Home in Renfew Lane. It was an old workshop, where 
some thirty orphans were gathered in and cared for. " How 
many did you get in the first day?" asked my husband, at this 
juncture of the story. " Only one; and he was hesitating as to 
whether he should come or not. We had to coax him in. After 
giving him a bath and something to eat, we put him to bed, and 
then he said : ' Oh, that's grand, sir ! ' " 

The City Home soon became too narrow for many applicants. 
Mr. Quarrier, wishing to find a place for building a series of 
Homes — not farther than three miles out of Glasgow — made 
arrangements for the purchase of twenty acres, which were to 
cost £6,000; but something happened by which the negotiations 
were set aside. 'A friend mentioned the present site, but was 
met with the objection that it was too far out from Glasgow. 
Yet, on visiting it, he could see at once that it answered his own 
ideal of what was needed, far more than the other. He lifted 
up his heart and voice and said : " Lord, this will do. Thy will 
is far better than mine, and I accept it thankfully." He purchased 
forty acres at a cost of £3,560 and the change to Bridge of 
Weir was made in 1876. In 1878 the first building in which were 
combined home, church, and school, was finished. The present 
area consists of 106 acres, and during the past year there were 
over 1,300 children at the Homes. 

As the work became more and more known, people ceased to 
call Mr. Quarrier an Utopian. Friends were raised for his 
schemes, and contributions came in from all parts of the world, 
varying in amount from the widow's mite to the merchant prince's 
thousands. One day Mr. Quarrier found an old envelope con- 
taining bank-notes to the value of £1,700, with anonymous request 
to build a home called Sagittarius. Another time he received 
a donation of £500 saved in pennies by a poor widow. 

Then, again, one day a Glasgow washerwoman sent for him 
to tell him that she wished to give him her fortune. She had 
been a hard-working woman all her life, spending most of her 
time at the wash-tub. Of an economical turn of mind, she put 
penny to penny and shilling to shilling for a rainy day. Long 
years of saving and compound interest accumulated her earnings 



388 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

to the handsome sum of over £1,400. She was an unconverted 
woman. God moved her heart at the right time for the Homes 
to be provided with pure water by means of her money, and for 
her to receive the Water of Life through the instrumentality of 
Mr. Quarrier. She died a few days after the donation act, with 
the words trembling upon her lips, "Just as I am, without one 
plea." 

These are only a few instances of the wonderful ways in which 
funds came in just at the very moment they were needed. If 
they were not coming in, the servant of God would understand 
that he was not called to do the work that lay on his heart. He 
never undertakes anything without the necessary amount in hand ; 
consequently there is not a penny of debt upon any of the Homes. 

Until recently Mr. Quarrier sent bands of boys to Canada ; but, 
owing to an act passed by the Ontario Government, which came 
into force in September, 1897, the outlet to the Dominion has for 
the present been closed. This law prohibits children from being 
taken into the province without a descriptive licence, which is 
degrading to the children, as it reminds them and others of their 
antecedents. Under these circumstances Mr. Quarrier has re- 
solved to make provision for a longer residence in the Homes, 
thus securing for them a more thorough training for trades and 
domestic service at home. This will require the erection of ten 
additional Homes, which will cost £2,000 each. 

Since our visit the twenty-eighth annual meeting was held, 
on November 22, at the Christian Institute, Glasgow, under the 
presidency of the Hon. the Lord Provost, Mr. Samuel Chisholm, 
and attended by a large and influential company of friends. 

W. M. 



CHAPTER XXX 

THE GROWTH OF BELIEF IN " DIVINE HEALING " 

For about half a century, the inquiry has excited in- 
creasing interest, " How far may we carry to the Lord 
bodily ailments, in prayer and faith for healing?" A 
body of believers, both numerous and respectable, affirm 
belief in divine healing as a truth taught in the Word, 
and as a fact of their own experience. 

There are those who sympathize with such views ; others 
who either doubt or deny and reject all such notions and 
experiences as illusive and delusive ; and others who feel 
neither sympathy nor antipathy, but apathy; hesitating to 
dispute such testimony, yet ready to take no definite po- 
sition. 

Is it possible to find a firm standing-place, and form an 
opinion, clear, reasonable and scriptural ? 

There is a Scriptural basis for the doctrine of divine 
healing, in answer to prayer. The doubt concerns its 
present application. That the " prayer of faith shall save 
the sick," admits no more question than the incarnation, 
atonement, or any other truth, explicitly taught in the 
Word. But, we need to guard this admission by a few 
careful limitations, such as the following: 

1. Disease is treated in the Bible as one of the conse- 
quences of sin, and one of those " works of the devil " 
which Christ came to destroy. (Job ii, 7; Luke xiii, 16; 
1 John iii, 8.) 

2. Disease is commonly represented as a judicial in- 
fliction from God in consequence of sin; the promise of, 

389 



390 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

at least, comparative immunity from it is attached to 
obedience ; and its removal is conditional upon repentance 
and reformation. (Ex. xv, 25, 26; Deut vii, 15; xxviii, 
27-35; Psalm xci, 5-8; cv, 37; Isaiah xxxiii, 24; 2 
Chron. vi, 28-30.) 

3. Healing power is not ascribed to remedial agencies, 
but always primarily to God. Remedies may conduce to 
the result, but are inadequate without His blessing. 
Hence, Asa is disapproved because his primary reliance 
was on the physicians, and not on God. (2 Chron. xvi, 
12-13; Ex. xv, 26; Psalm ciii, 3; 2 Chron. xxxvi, 16 
[margin] ; Jer. xxx, 17; Deut. xxxii, 39.) 

4. The power to forgive sins and the power to heal 
disease are so associated that one is used to confirm and es- 
tablish the other. (Psalm ciii, 2, 3, 4; Mark ii, 5-10.) 

5. Miracles of healing were, next to his teaching, the 
conspicuous feature of our Lord's earthly life, inseparably 
linked with His atoning work. Isa. liii, 4-5, is quoted in 
Matt, viii, 16, 17. The circumstances are specially signifi- 
cant. In this " Scriptura " Miraculosa of Matthew, a com- 
prehensive array of miracles of healing is presented ; and, 
in the midst of the account, no reference being made to 
the typical character of disease or the spiritual application 
of Christ's atoning work, the quotation occurs : " That it 
might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet : 
Himself took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses." 
The previous verse contains an epitome of Christ's healing 
works, and thus connects them with this prediction. If 
the quotation has no reference to bodily infirmity and 
sickness, what is its pertinence or connection? These 
miracles of bodily healing are treated as a fulfilment of 
that prophecy, as though He, who " bare our sins " some- 
how also bare our sickness. 

6. Miracles of healing were among the signs which 



BELIEF IN " DIVINE HEALING " 391 

were to follow those that believe, as part of the witness of 
the gospel's power, and of the glory of its triumph. (Mark 
xvi, 15, 18; John xiv, 12, etc.) 

7. Divine healing continued to be wrought through the 
apostolic age; nor is there a hint of any purpose of our 
Lord that these displays of divine energy should ever 
cease; and, as the New Testament nears completion, 
prayer for the sick is enjoined as a means of divine heal- 
ing. (John xiv, 12 ; Mark x, 51, 52 ; vi, 13 ; Acts ii, 43 ; 
iii, 6, 7; iv, 30; v, 15; ix, 40, 41 ; xiv, 8-10; xix, 12, and 
James v, 14.) 

8. It can not be proven that such healing has ever wholly 
ceased. It may have declined, in proportion to the decline 
of evangelical faith, evangelistic activity, unworldliness of 
life and power in prayer; but competent witnesses testify 
that healing, in answer to prayer has, to some degree, been 
found in every age. Especially do " signs ", similar to 
those of primitive days appear to have been wrought by 
devoted missionaries and their simple converts, where the 
gospel has been brought into contact with a people rude, 
unimpressible, ignorant and in conditions, similar to those 
which prevailed when it was first preached and which 
seemed to justify the expectation that God would give 
" boldness " to His servants in preaching, " by stretching 
forth His hand to heal." These statements were not gen- 
erally doubted by believers, until zeal to overthrow the 
" faith-cure delusion " led to rash attempts to prove that 
all supernatural signs long since answered their purpose 
and entirely ceased; and so, classed with miracles, they 
have been treated as impossible, on whatsoever testimony 
supported. Such a position is almost identical with that 
of the deist, Hume, whose name is linked with Gibbon, 
Bolingbroke, Rousseau and Voltaire, as a deadly foe of 
our faith. 



392 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

This is a question, first, of scripture testimony, and, 
secondly, of trustworthy evidence; on such grounds the 
issue should be tried. 

Who are the witnesses ? Christlieb writes, in his volume 
on " Modern Infidelity," p. 332, " In the history of modern 
missions, we find many wonderful occurrences, which un- 
mistakably remind us of the apostolic age. * * In both pe- 
riods, there are similar hindrances to be overcome in the 
heathen world, and similar palpable confirmations of the 
Word are needed to convince the dull sense of men." He 
instances Hans Egede, pioneer in Greenland, who, finding 
that his hearers, like many in the time of Christ, had a 
perception only for bodily relief, sought with prayers and 
tears the gift of healing to prove to them the power of the 
Redeemer whom he preached ; then ventured in the name 
of Christ, to lay his hands upon the sick, and scores of 
them were made whole. Similar facts are recorded of the 
Moravian missionaries, Spangenberg and Zeisberger; of 
the Rhenish Mission in South Africa in 1858, in the me- 
moir of Kleinschmidt, and of Nommensen in Sumatra. 

Luther, after wrestling in prayer at the bedside of the 
dying Melancthon, said " Philip, be of good cheer, thou 
shalt not die," and, from that hour, Melancthon revived. 
Bengel records the case of a girl in Leonberg, immediately 
healed by the prayer of faith, whose case was examined 
and publicly certified as genuine. Spurgeon, in review 
of the testimony to supernatural power in the institutions, 
founded by Franke, Falk, Stilling, Gossner, Muller, 
Fleidner, Harms, Wichern, Dorothea Trudell, etc., desig- 
nated these believers as " modern workers of miracles." 
He declared that he had seen unquestionable instances of 
divine healing in answer to prayer, but had not given 
them publicity, " lest the minds of men should be unduly 
turned from spiritual healing to the relief of bodily 
disease." 



BELIEF IN « DIVINE HEALING " 393 

Rev. Dr. Burr, in " Ad Fidem," discussing " Modern 
Signs," says to unbelievers who clamor for present ex- 
amples of supernatural power, " I am able to present to 
you substantially just such examples of the personal in- 
tervention of God among men as you ask. You shall have 
examples belonging to your own time and sphere." Then 
giving thirteen pages to answers to prayer, he says, " they 
are divine actions, as truly such as any which under the 
great name of miracles are attributed to the world's early 
ages. We do not choose to call them ' miracles/ But, 
for all that, they are direct divine interpositions, and can 
no more, in accordance with the scientific principles of 
evidence, be ascribed to any natural source, than could 
the sundering of the Red Sea under the outstretched arm 
of Moses." 

C. K. Studd, Stanley Smith and others, of the famous 
" Cambridge Band," were peculiarly anointed of God, and 
great power attended their prayers. In Pekin, an epilep- 
tic, regarded as incurable, was by the physicians them- 
selves indicated as a good subject for the experiment of 
what prayer can do, where medicine fails. Mr. Stanley 
Smith and Dr. MacKenzie anointed him and prayed over 
him, and he was perfectly restored. 

Dr. A. J. Gordon, of Boston, became personally ac- 
quainted with unquestionable cases of God's healing in 
answer to prayer ; as for instance, a slave to opium, who, 
in 1876, during Mr. Moody's meetings in Boston, in great 
mental distress, begged Christians to pray for his deliver- 
ance, believing that, without the direct power of God, his 
case was hopeless. A few gathered round him, and earn- 
estly besought God for him. He never afterward felt the 
least craving for opium, and became a prominent Y. M. 
C. A. secretary. Dr. Gordon had a friend, a returned mis- 
sionary, whose son had a cancer in the lower jaw, and the 
removal of the jaw was the only hope of saving his life. 



394 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

* 

He was at the hospital, and the next day was set for the 
operation. The evening previous, fervent prayer was of- 
fered. Dr. Gordon's mind was impressed that the Lord 
might be expected to interpose in behalf of this young 
believer, the son of a devoted missionary; he invited the 
afflicted father to his house, and sat up with him till mid- 
night, conversing and praying over this matter. The 
father then resolved to cast himself and his boy wholly on 
God, and the next morning the lad was brought to Dr. 
Gordon's house and was pointed to Christ as his healer. 
His mind became imbued with the conviction that God 
was able and willing to heal him, and the directions in 
James v, 14, 15 were literally followed. The jaw entirely 
healed, not a trace of the cancer could, after a few weeks, 
be found ; and even the teeth, which had been loosened, 
were again held tightly in the jaw.. In Pastor Blumhardt's 
Prayer cure, a few hours from Tubingen in Germany, 
both body and soul are restored to wholeness in answer 
to prayer, and the only remedy applied is that divine pan- 
acea, the Gospel. 

9. Sickness being obviously included among what the 
Bible calls " God's chastenings " (Hebrew xii), it is plain 
that, so far as this fatherly discipline has in view the cor- 
rection of faults and the rebuke of sin, the only remedy 
must be, repentance and reformation. 

Physical suffering may be classed under three heads : 

1. Organic penalty, due to violation of natural laws, 
including hereditary infirmity or diseased tendency. 

2. Physical retribution, or punishment for violations of 
moral law. 

3. Divine chastisement or fatherly correction, not for 
judgment, but for weaning us from this world and all 
other idols. This is limited to children of God by 
faith. 

4. Educative suffering, to ripen such virtues as implicit 



BELIEF IN « DIVINE HEALING " 395 

faith, patience, unmurmuring submission, and sympathy 
with sorrow. 

So far as bodily disease or infirmity is the organic re- 
sult of sin, a judgment on sin, or a correction for faults, 
resort to medicine, instead of repentance, evades the whole 
issue. If natural laws have been transgressed by excesses, 
over-eating, intemperate drinking, overworking, reckless 
exposure, irregular habits, neglect of sleep and of Sabbath 
rest, God uses the scourge of nature to whip us into obedi- 
ence to the laws of health. Medicine may bring temporary 
relief; but, if the violation of physical law continues, we 
only invite a more violent scourging which no medicine 
can even relieve. 

A friend asked Mr. Moody to make a certain minister 
a subject of special prayer, who had suffered for years 
from insomnia, nervous depression, indigestion, and symp- 
toms of approaching paralysis. " There's no use praying 
for that man," abruptly answered Moody, " unless he is 
going to obey the laws of nature. He has been sitting up 
half the night to write editorials, and worked for years 
without regard to proper rest or sleep. I don't believe in 
praying for the recovery of any man who doesn't obey the 
laws of health." 

Even where disorders are hereditary, rigid attention to 
cleanliness, pure air, good food, regular habits; careful 
avoidance of the excesses and exposures to which, in the 
parent, the hereditary taint was due, may relieve, and in 
many cases remove, the evil. Sometimes the scourge is 
God's reminder, to induce such care and caution as may 
prevent the further transmission of similar morbid ten- 
dencies. Combe, in his " Constitution of Man," writing 
only as a scientific infidel, vindicates this law of nature as, 
on the whole, wise, just and good, notwithstanding the suf- 
fering it often causes; and he invents a fable to illustrate 
this. 



396 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

A young heir complains to Jupiter because, in conse- 
quence of his father's debaucheries, he is pierced with 
pangs, for sins not his own. Jupiter replies that, by the 
very law of which he complains, he also receives from his 
father delicate nerves, vigorous muscles, keen senses and 
many noble capacities and faculties of mind and heart; 
he offers in his case to suspend the offensive organic 
law, but warns him that, in losing his pain, he will 
also lose all advantages and benefits coming to him 
through hereditary descent. He further reminds him that 
even his pain is a kindly monitor, to warn him from the 
paths of vice, trodden by his father. The sufferer with- 
draws complaint, resigns himself to his sufferings, and re- 
solves, by obedience to all bodily laws, to reduce his pains, 
and, if possible, bring back his body to a normal and 
healthy estate. 

So far as disease is a direct divine judgment on moral 
offences, we can hope for its removal, if at all, only as 
we repent and reform. This was continually illustrated 
in the history of Israel. Idolatry, rebellion, profanity, sen- 
suality provoked God's judgments, in pestilence, plague, 
and calamity of every form. Imagine the Hebrews, 
when that great plague smote them at Kibroth Hattaavah, 
for their angry murmurings, sending to Egypt for medi- 
cine men, holding consultations about herbs and poultices, 
applying sinapisms and cataplasms to heal a plague that 
only sorrow for sin could even soothe! Or, when Mir- 
iam's jealousy led her to rebel against Moses, and God 
smote her with leprosy, imagine Aaron calling together 
the skilful doctors of Israel and of surrounding countries 
to treat her case, using curious prescriptions of drugs; 
allopathic doses, homoeopathic dilutions, or hydropathic 
packs and washings, as remedies for God's own judgment 
on her sin ! Pharaoh might as well have tried to rid him- 
self of the plagues by medicating the Nile, by frog-traps 



BELIEF IN « DIVINE HEALING " 397 

and fly-traps, and fine-toothcombs, by fumigations and 
salves and patent medicines. Had Miriam attempted any 
such remedial treatment, it would have been fresh insult 
to the Lord who was dealing with her. She consented to be 
shut out of the camp as unclean, for seven days, until 
fasting, humiliation and prayer removed the leprous 
scourge. 

When sin against moral law — intoxication, sensuality, 
debauchery, deliberate abandonment to crime, — has 
brought a stroke of judgment, it is aggravated rebellion 
virtually to deny God's connection with the bodily curse; 
and, instead of turning to Him in repentance, turn away 
from Him and undertake to undo His work of judgment 
by the aid of drugs ! To permit such devices to succeed, 
would be striking a blow at His own authority, — entering 
into competition with man, and allowing man to circum- 
vent Him ! 

The third class of ailments are corrections in love. We 
have some fault, that the Father would chasten away; 
some wrong temper or disposition, that He would trans- 
form; we have wandered, and He seeks to reclaim; we 
are unduly attached to some idol, and He seeks to wean; 
some lack of conformity to His will He would correct! 
In such cases, the discipline ought not to cease, until the 
wrong is purged away, or the result attained! The very 
word, " chastisement," has a lesson. A parent chastises for 
a fault; the object of correction is to correct; as soon as 
the child becomes obedient, and the fault is corrected, 
the chastisement is of course abated; for, from that mo- 
ment, if chastisement continued, malice would displace 
mercy, and hate, love. But, until then, to abate chastise- 
ment would be sparing the rod but spoiling the child. 

God dealeth with us as a father with the son in whom 
he delights, and, so far as bodily suffering is His chastise- 
ment, we should seek its removal only so far as its end is 



398 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

attained. The first step, therefore, should be to the Phy- 
sician, not of the body but of the soul ; not the poultice of 
figs, but the face to the wall ; not the decoction of herbs, 
but the panacea of the gospel. We are to inquire what 
the Lord seeks to rebuke, change, correct, or remove. 
One ounce of holy reflection, penitence, prayer, is worth 
a pound of drugs. One drop of Jesus' blood or the oil 
of the Spirit, is worth all Neptune's ocean, or all the es- 
sences and extracts in the world. It is not the balm of 
the apothecary, but the " balm of Gilead," that is needed. 
This would not be disputed, had not materialism and prac- 
tical atheism so tainted Christian life, that we practically 
shut God out from our affairs. In modern notions the 
universe is a clock work, wound up somehow, and some- 
how never running down; the wheels move regularly, 
and nothing can stop them ; there is no intelligence guiding 
them ; blind " natural law " is the mechanical mainspring. 
If you get caught and half crushed between the cogs, it is 
an accident ; and all you can hope to do is to get the doctor 
to bind up your wounds with bandage and healing salves 
and ointments and set your broken bones. You have come 
into collision with a machine, which has neither intelli- 
gence nor will, love nor mercy. All you can do is, if pos- 
sible, to repair the damage by some other machine or 
mechanical appliance, and for the future be more careful. 
Medical science drifts, nowadays, towards this material- 
istic, mechanical theory. God is excluded from the do- 
main of bodily ailments, and uniform, inexorable laws con- 
trol health and disease. The physician has investigated 
the machine, and can tell you how to keep out of its way ; 
or, if you have got hurt, he has his machinery of bandage 
and poultice, knife and battery, drug and salve, to make 
you over, good as new. If you have sinned by overwork, 
dose yourself with quinine; if you are sleepless from ex- 
cessive study, court artificial sleep by soporifics and ano- 



BELIEF IN « DIVINE HEALING " 399 

dynes ; if you have disordered your stomach, " use for 
your stomach's sake," a little wine or more powerful stim- 
ulants ; if you have been guilty of sensual excesses, resort 
to patent medicines. No recognition of God or con- 
science ! no injunction to obey God's law, keep the Sabbath 
holy, cease mad pursuit of gain and fame, fast instead of 
feasting, give brain and stomach rest, and cut off all sins 
of the flesh. Thank God! all physicians have not been 
swept along upon this current of practical atheism! The 
mention of Sir James Y. Simpson of Edinburgh and Al- 
fred Post of New York reminds of the illustrious host 
of Christian physicians, who have both believed and 
taught a Scriptural theory of disease: that man sins 
against God when he transgresses a moral or physical law ; 
that repentance is therefore the first step toward a true re- 
covery, and obedience the true preventive of similar ills; 
that, behind physical laws and their uniformity, is an in- 
telligent, benevolent Sovereign, whose ways of working 
they are, and right relations with whom are the primary 
secrets of all normal conditions of body or soul. Some 
of the most skilful doctors never wrote a prescription or 
administered a remedy without a prayer for guidance. 
One such, who stood at the head of his profession, would 
in the sick-room, seek, first, to lead his patient to repent- 
ance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ ; and 
he said that remedies proved practically ineffectual, where 
the patient was rebellious and disobedient toward God ; and 
that, " where there was a right spirit toward God, all his 
remedies wrought far more rapidly and effectually; and 
that, in many cases, a change in the spiritual life became 
the basis of physical cure." He would therefore counsel 
the sick, show them their disobedience toward God, guide 
them to Christ and pray at their bedside; and, where all 
remedies failed, point the dying to the Physician of souls. 
As to bodily afflictions designed for the education of 



400 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

character, God may have lessons for His saints which can 
be learned only in the school of suffering; and this may 
account for the fact that some who have so learned 
patience and submission that their faces shine with the 
solar light, and their bed-chambers are the vestibule of 
heaven, abide for long years in a suffering body. 

Just here, the " Faith Cure " school often runs to an 
extreme. Some say that all sickness is the result of sin; 
that, as the atonement of Christ avails for sin and all its 
consequences, of which sickness is one, faith will enable us 
to escape sickness, and they conclude that all sick persons 
are sinners, or if not unsaved sinners, unbelieving saints. 
The fallacy and sophistry of such reasoning are not hard 
to trace. Sickness is the fruit of sin, but not necessarily of 
the sin of the individual sufferer. As parts of a social or- 
ganism, none of us are independent of others ; and when, 
at any point, the organism suffers injury, the shock is felt 
throughout ; suffering is entailed not only by heredity, but 
by society ; nor shall we be wholly delivered from partner- 
ship in the sorrows and sufferings of humanity till we are 
no longer part of an unredeemed society, and we must all 
" travail in pain together," until the " day of redemption/' 

10. There is a Redemption for the body and, while its 
consummation is found only in the resurrection, bodily 
health in its anticipation. (3 John, 2; 1 Thess. v, 23 ; 1 
Cor. vi, 19; Ephes. v, 30; Rom. viii, 11; 2 Cor. iv, 10, 

H.) 

The drift of such passages is that, by faith, we become so 
identified with Christ, that our bodies become the temple 
of the Holy Spirit, and the life of Jesus is manifested in 
them. Surely, a body in which the Spirit dwells ought, by 
virtue of that fact, to be a better body, and feel the thrill 
of that divine life in better blood, brain, brawn, bone and 
nerves ! The divine indwelling should have both a purify- 
ing and healing effect on even the material temple. 



BELIEF IN « DIVINE HEALING " 401 

11. As " Jesus Christ " is the " same yesterday and to- 
day, and forever," the measure of blessing we receive from 
Him depends on the appropriating power of our faith. 
Perhaps the notion that healing power is no longer exer- 
cised, hinders asking in faith, and touching the hem of 
His garment, so as to be made whole. " The blood of Jesus 
Christ cleanseth from all sin." Yet we are not cleansed 
from all sin so long as feeble faith does not grasp the ful- 
ness of this promise. And so, while He has still the same 
divine healing power, believers may not receive the fulness 
of healing virtue, because faith does not lay hold on His 
power. Increase of faith may make larger blessings pos- 
sible. " Far more people are humbugged by believing 
too little, than by believing too much," said Barnum. 
And in our relations with God, a faith whose boldness and 
largeness of expectation border on presumption, is far 
better than the unbelief that dares neither to ask nor hope 
for blessings which He only waits for our asking, to 
bestow. 

12. If, therefore, supernatural signs have disappeared 
in consequence of the loss of primitive faith and holi- 
ness, a revival of these latter may bring new mani- 
festations of the former. Supernatural signs appear to 
have survived the apostolic age; but we cannot trace 
them beyond the period of Constantine, when the church 
lost its separateness, merged with and into the state; 
when evangelistic activity declined and evangelical faith 
decayed; and so the conditions of God's special presence 
among His people no longer existed. If in these degen- 
erate days, a new Pentecost should restore primitive faith, 
worship, unity and activity, new displays of divine power 
might surpass those of any previous period. 

In conclusion we set up a few landmarks of limitation 
and qualification. 

1. There is in the Old Testament an emphasis on ten*- 



4 02 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

poral blessings, not found in the New. Hence Francis 
Bacon wrote : " Prosperity is the blessing of the Old 
Testament ; adversity, the blessing of the New." Before 
Christ came, the future state was more imperfectly re- 
vealed, and the life that now is was correspondingly promi- 
nent. The definite promise of long life, immunity from 
disease, and outward well-being, is not, for some reason, 
repeated in the New Testament. When Christ brought life 
and immortality to light, the emphasis passed from things 
temporal to things eternal, and the need of incitements to 
duty and obedience, drawn from this life, does not exist 
to the same degree. In the New Testament, there is a 
conspicuous absence of such incentives — no promise of 
long life, but only of abundant life; not of barns filled 
with plenty, but only of necessary food and raiment; not 
of freedom from disease, but only of blessing through 
discipline. Those who hold opposite views must go back 
to the older Scriptures for their primary warrant. 

2. No use of natural means can be proven improper, 
provided dependence be on God. The most marked cases 
of healing have been, like that of the " woman with the is- 
sue of blood," where ordinary means have failed. If some 
rush to extreme positions, neglecting even common pre- 
cautions and abandoning even harmless remedies, using 
prayer as the only antidote to poison, the only healer of 
broken bones, the only preventive of small pox, the only 
substitute even for vitiated air, there are others who, free 
from such fanaticism, hold the truth within spiritual and 
rational and sensible limits. 

Faith in God's healing power is not to be put on a level 
with the presumption of the fanatic who, finding his wife 
suffocating with charcoal gas, instead of opening the win^ 
dow to let in fresh air, leaves her shut in, while he runs 
for the elders with their anointing pot. A witty editof 



BELIEF IN « DIVINE HEALING " 403 

who stigmatizes the advocates of faith-cure as those who 
" neither use a fig-poultice nor care a fig for a poultice," 
raised a smile of derision, but convinced nobody. " A 
light word is the devil's keenest sword," and such weapons 
are easily turned by him against the truth and its de- 
fenders. No doctrine is so fundamental, no fact so un- 
mistakable, that it has not been robed in satire — " The 
blood " sneered at, the Lord's table caricatured, the in- 
spiration of the Bible travestied : but all these are like the 
attempts of the smart boy to excite laughter by charcoal- 
ing the clown's features over the alabaster face of a Min- 
erva or a Madonna. 

In weighing truth or falsity we need calmness, fairness, 
courtesy, charity, sound argument and a Scriptural spirit. 
Yet how seldom do we find such a spirit in the examina- 
tion of the question, as is found in Dr. Gordon's " Min- 
istry of Healing." " Faith-cure " is the butt of so much 
satire that one can scarce write on it, without risk of being 
made a blind Samson " to grind in the mill, while the Phil- 
istines look on and make sport." 

As we should not carelessly resort to ridicule, so ought 
we not to be blinded by prejudice. Bacon classed the bar- 
riers to progress, as the idols of the tribe, or race prejudice; 
idols of the den or cave, or individual prejudice ; idols of 
the forum, or contagious prejudice, and idols of the thea- 
ter, or prejudice imbibed from influential men or teachers. 
There is plenty of this fourfold idolatry. When intelligent 
believers affirm their conviction, founded on experience 
and observation, that God directly, in answer to prayer, 
heals otherwise incurable disease, they are met, not with 
impartial and courteous investigation; but with preju- 
dices that spring from violent hostility to everything su- 
pernatural, from professional bigotry, from obstinate con- 
servatism, or from virtual idolatry of a few prominent 



404 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

leaders or teachers who know everything, and whose dic- 
tum settles all questions at once. It is our duty neither to 
be biased by previous judgments, nor borne down by the 
weight of mere human authority, though a Daniel come to 
judgment, or an "infallible" Pope issue his "bull." Every 
question is to be examined in the light, first of Scripture 
teaching, and then of competent testimony. No shafts of 
ridicule, no bolts of denunciation need alarm, for he who is 
on the side of truth and God, may dare to stand alone, 
for " one, with God, is a majority." 

3. Fanatical extremes are no argument against essen- 
tial truth. Coleridge said that fanaticism is often only 
" the refraction of a truth yet below the horizon ; " and 
consequent discoloration. Much fanaticism is the result of 
convictions of truth, embraced amid opposition. Behind 
the " vagaries of faith-healing," may be hidden a precious 
truth which the mass of professing Christians live in too 
worldly a state to recognize or accept. Hence, those who 
do, driven by antagonism and ridicule, into separation and 
isolation, run to extremes ; but such has been the history 
of every reform in morals or religion. 

Some earnest Christians who believe in Divine Healing 
hesitate to avow it. A godly and conservative minister 
who is at the farthest remove from fanaticism, constitu- 
tionally calm, discreet, judicious, declared to me his belief 
in healing in answer to prayer ; accounting it a gift never 
wholly withdrawn from the church, varying in extent with 
the conditions of spiritual life ; but he does not think the 
use of proper means excluded, or that all sickness implies 
in the individual a low state of piety or faith. 

4. There is no necessary antagonism between divine 
healing and human healing. The discoveries, achieve- 
ments and advances of medical science are wonderful, es- 
pecially in anaesthetics, antiseptics, febrifugal and kindred 



BELIEF IN " DIVINE HEALING " 405 

remedies and appliances. But such science is neither 
omniscient nor omnipotent ; at best, in many things uncer- 
tain and experimental, if not blind and powerless, even by 
the confession of experts.* 

Idolatry of medical science, on the part of doctor or 
patient, is wicked and absurd. While using lawful means, 
we are to remember that only He who made this body, 
understands its healthy or morbid conditions, and the 
causes and cure of its diseases, and no remedy can even 
relieve without His blessing ! 

5. Divine Healing has been brought into contempt by 
the rash claim that, if authentic, it belongs to the miracu- 
lous. The broad distinction between miraculous and su- 
pernatural, even Horace Bushnell failed to recognize. The 
supernatural moves above nature ; the miraculous moves 
contrary to nature, as where the dead are made to live or a 
lost limb is restored. The supernatural may move in the 
same direction as nature, adding the impulse of a divine 
energy. Conversion is not miraculous, but it is super- 
natural. In the mind it produces convictions ; in the 
heart it awakens affections ; in the will, it stirs resolves, 
beyond the power of the natural man. A wind may blow 
against a running stream so as to arrest its flow ; or in 
the direction of its current, so as to quicken its flow ; the 
former illustrates the miraculous ; the latter, the super- 
natural. When God needed to accredit His messengers, 



* Prof. N. Chapman says: "Medical conclusions differ widely from every 
other species of evidence ; we cheat ourselves with a thousand illusions and 
have imposed on us still more deceptions. Dark and perplexed, our devious 
career resembles the blind gropings of Homer's cyclops round his cave.'' 
Sir Astley Cooper says, "The science of medicine is founded upon conjec- 
ture and improved by murder." Oliver W. Holmes said that " it were 
better for mankind, but bad for the fishes, if all drugs were cast into the 
sea." Prof. Armour wrote : " Drugs are administered, patients recover and 
we suppose we have cured them, whereas our remedies may have had little 
or nothing to do with their recovery ; very likely it took place in spite of our 
drugs." 



406 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

He wrought miracles, which were in contrast with all 
natural modes of working; as when fire burned up a 
sacrifice soaked with water, and even licked up the water, 
or an impotent man suddenly got not only strength to 
walk, but acquired the art of walking; bread is added to 
as it is subtracted from and multiplied as it is divided; 
water, that nature takes a season to transform into grape 
juice, is turned instantly into wine in water-pots; and a 
man, dead four days, is called forth by a voice. There 
may be no more need of such miracles, and it may be best 
that they should not be wrought, that they may stand as 
God's special seal of authority upon certain inspired 
teachers. If a seal becomes common, it loses value; if 
any believer may work a miracle, and even fanatics, ex- 
tremists and heretics, what becomes of God's attestation of 
his prophets, his apostles, his Son? 

But it by no means follows that God is not always su- 
pernaturally working. Every believer who receives from 
God strength to do what otherwise he could not do; to 
see a truth to which the natural man is blind ; to love the 
holiness to which the carnal heart is hostile ; whose will is 
divinely enabled to break the bonds of a life habit; who 
feels the thrill of conscious contact with God in the closet, 
and goes forth in His might, to speak for Him and battle 
with evil — is wrought upon by a supernatural energy: it 
may use his natural powers and work in the lines of his 
ordinary work and life; there may be nothing sudden, 
startling and appealing to the grosser senses ; but a divine 
Spirit is moving the man with a new and strange energy. 

Every true disciple begins to be such by a supernatural 
act called regeneration, advances by a supernatural work, 
called sanctification, is qualified for service by a super- 
natural anointing, known as unction, and with literal truth 
can say, " it is no more I that do it, but Christ that dwelleth 
in me." Who shall dare say that supernatural working is 



BELIEF IN "DIVINE HEALING" 407 

confined to the spiritual nature, and does not touch the 
physical? If, inhabiting the believer, the Spirit of God 
works in him to will and to do, so that his spiritual life is 
essentially a supernatural life, on what authority can any 
one declare that the body can feel no effect of that divine 
indwelling? John Knox, George Whitefield, John Wes- 
ley, Edward Irving and many other such saints have risen 
from the sick bed to undertake for God work that de- 
manded the full strength of body ; or, in the midst of in- 
cessant strain and tension of work, have not even known 
fatigue ! They found it true that there may be exertion 
without exhaustion; they renewed their strength, waiting 
on God; they walked and fainted not; ran and were not 
weary; and, when every natural power seemed to fail, 
mounted up on tireless wings as eagles. 

6. As to anointing, various views are held, which may 
be classed as medical, symbolical, sacramental. The sym- 
bolical seems most sensible — that it was a symbol of the 
anointing of the Holy Spirit. So regarded, it may be used 
or not, as the believer prefers, as one of those matters of 
which every man is to " be fully persuaded in his own 
mind." 

Some decline to anoint, for fear of unduly magnifying a 
mere outward form ; but it is possible to elevate it to 
undue importance, by making an issue upon it. Why 
not yield to honest preference in things " not essential ? " 
If ministers of Christ would use this harmless form, where 
desired, it would at least withdraw one comparatively 
trifling matter from the arena of controversy. 

Worldliness and carnality are so overrunning the 
church, that the breath of believing prayer is stifled by a 
godless atmosphere. Much of the connection between sin 
and sickness is thus overlooked; chastisements, meant to 
scourge us for violations of natural laws and divine com- 
mands, are accepted as inevitable ; and, instead of leading 



408 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

to repentance and reformation, foster a mistaken martyr- 
dom. Hundreds of cases of bodily infirmity which might 
be remedied by prayer, holy living and laying hold on 
God, get no relief, because relief is sought in medical ex- 
pedients: the cause lying deeper, the remedy fails to 
reach the seat of the disease. 

One thing is sure: prayers for the sick often do not 
avail. To say that God's promise is limited to the 
" prayer of faith" and that such faith is not simply a grace, 
but a gift, not to be exercised by all and at all times, may 
be only an apology for the lack both of the gift and the 
grace ! The more of the grace we cultivate, the more of 
the gift is likely to be conferred. The one need of our day 
is a higher type of piety — a closer walk with God. The 
carnally-minded disciple can not have the contact with God 
which conveys to our impotence the energy of omnipo- 
tence. To live for the treasures or pleasures of this world 
is to be dead while we live; and a dead Christian is a 
powerless Christian. A new hold on God might prove a 
new revelation of a faith that removes mountains, and 
wrenches sycamores from their rock-bed ! a faith to which 
nothing is impossible! 



CHAPTER XXXI 

THE INCREASING STUDY OF THE " LAST THINGS " 

The study of questions of eschatology, or " the last 
things," particularly the approaching " end of the age," 
has taken on new interest of late. 

Many think such studies unpractical, and that to deter- 
mine anything, as to the future, with certainty, is impossi- 
ble; and yet, among those who have investigated along 
these lines, and claim to have reached positive conclusions, 
are many, whose scholarship is of a high order, ard who 
have both large acquaintance with Scripture, and intense 
devotion to the person of Christ. There is also among such 
a general consensus of opinion that we are now on the 
threshold of that crisis, unparalleled in the history of the 
Church and of the world, concerning which Christ bade us 
to " watch and pray." 

In view of all this, it may be well to consider some of the 
main arguments urged for the conclusion and conviction 
that the time of the end is drawing near. 

We select twelve of the more conspicuous, presenting 
these positions, rather as the historian or annalist than as 
the advocate. These opinions are not always mutually 
consistent, not all starting from the same point of de- 
parture, nor based upon the same systems of interpretation 
and calculation; yet they are of value as illustrating one 
common trend of opinion toward the one common conclu- 
sion which, like the golden mile-stone at Rome, is thus 
reached by many roads from diverse starting points. 

Six of these methods of computation have a numerical 

409 



410 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

basis, and to appreciate the argument, at whatever be its 
worth, one must understand and recognize a numerical 
system as manifestly pervading the whole Word of God 
from Genesis to Revelation, and which constitutes a sort of 
mathematical framework upon which the entire structure 
of written Revelation is built. This will not surprise those 
who have already found such a numerical structure per- 
vading all the works of God in creation, and have traced 
the curious mathematical correspondences in historic 
periods. In astronomy, chemistry, biology, mineralogy, 
botany, anatomy, there are mathematical laws of dimen- 
sion and proportion, geometrical ratios, and numerical 
systems, that the scientific observer is compelled to admit 
and admire.* There are signs of one mathematical Mind 
which astonish and overwhelm us. The orbits, periods of 
rotation and revolution of the planets, and their respect- 
ive distances from the sun; the spiral course and regular 
recurrence of leaf-buds on the trees and plants, the pro- 
portions and dimensions of crystals, the chemical ratios — 
all these and similar facts found among the thousand 
forms of life and myriad operations of nature, reveal con- 
formity to strict mathematical laws. There are octaves 
of color as well as of sound, and from Sirius down to the 
invisible atom, the uniformity of order tells of one Creator 
and Designer. This fact being once admitted, it becomes 
less a novelty to find evidence of a like mathematical pre- 
cision in the structure of Scripture and the events of his- 
tory. 

Thus prepared, we may glance at the various positions 
taken by devout students of prophecy and history, as to 



* Thomas A. Edison has the insight to see through mechanism into the 
Mind behind it. " Chemistry," he says, "undoubtedly proves the existence 
of a supreme Intelligence. No one can study that science and see the won- 
derful way in which certain elements combine with the nicety of the most 
tdelicate machine ever devised, and not come to the inevitable conclusion 
hat there is a big Engineer who is running this universe." 



STUDY OF THE « LAST THINGS " 41 1 

the time of the end, and seek to get the outlook from their 
points of survey, noting in advance that, by at least twelve 
independent methods of calculation and computation, they 
all reach a common conclusion that some great crisis lies 
betiveen the years 1880 and 1920, or thereabouts. 

I. The Millenary Basis. — We are told that " One 
day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand 
years as one day." (2 Peter iii, 8.) This is taken as a 
hint, by no means obscure, of God's chronology, and is 
construed as favoring the old Jewish tradition that there 
are to be six millenniums, or days of a thousand years each, 
and then a grand seventh millennial day — a thousand years 
of rest — the true millennium. If so, this thousand years 
of Sabbatic rest, crowning the six long days of a world's 
toil, can not be far off. According to the current chro- 
nology, but one more century would be needed to complete 
the six millenary periods ; but reckoning Joshua's " long 
day " as the turning point when the longer solar year gave 
place to the shortened lunar year as the standard of 
reckoning, the year, 1899, would complete the sixth 
millenary since creation (2,555 -f long an d 3,444+ short 
years). This method of construing Scripture and com- 
puting time has gained many adherents of late, both in 
Britain and in America, and it has at least the merit of 
symmetry and simplicity. It divides human history into 
seven equal periods of a thousand years each, making it all 
one great week of millenniums, whose vanity and vexation 
of spirit end in one grand final seventh period of Sab- 
batic triumph and lest. 

II. " The Times of the Gentiles." — Our Lord uses 
this phrase (Luke xxi, 24), making their fulfilment the 
boundary limit of Jerusalem's desolation, and Paul (Rom. 
xi, 25) uses a similar phrase, " the fulness of the Gen- 



4 i2 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

tiles," as limiting the period of Israel's judicial blindness. 
It is, therefore, a natural and legitimate inquiry what 
period the times of the Gentiles span. 

There is general agreement that Nebuchadnezzar, as the 
" head of gold " (Dan. ii, 38), and representative of the 
first of the world kingdoms (Dan. vii, 3, 4) is the typical 
world power from whom these times are to be reckoned, 
and that the " seven times " or years that " passed over 
him in his strange insanity " typify seven longer years or 
periods, each composed of 360 year-days,* or a total of 
2,520 years, as covering the times of the Gentiles, to be 
fulfilled before the end. Reckoning from Nebuchadnez- 
zar's first incursion into Judah, when Daniel was made 
captive (606 B. C.), the twenty-five hundred and twenty 
years would be. complete about 1914 A. D. If the leading of 
the British Chronological Association be followed, and we 
reckon from Nabopolassar's assumption of the crown of 
Babylon, in the year 3377 A. M., the seven full " times " 
would expire in 5897 A. M., which is believed to coincide 
again with the year 1899. By a second road, therefore, 
the time of the great crisis is identified with the current 
period of human history. 

III. The " Historical " Method. — Closely connected 
with this is a third mode of computation. " The times of 
the Gentiles " (2,520 years) apparently fall into two equal 
divisions of 1,260 year year-days or " forty and two 
months," "a time, times, and half a time" (3J years). 
This division is conspicuous both in Daniel and the Apoca- 
lypse,! an d the desolation of Jerusalem in the seventh cen- 
tury seems to be the dividing line. Advocates of the " his- 
torical " interpretation of the Apocalypse generally hold 



* The prophetic year seems to be one of twelve equal months of 30 days 
each. 
+ Rev. xi , 2, xii , 6-14, Dan. vii , 25. 



STUDY OF THE « LAST THINGS " 413 

the " beast " and " the false prophet " to represent respect- 
ively the papal and Moslem world powers, the Crucifix 
and the Crescent. They find a curious coincidence at least 
in the fact that both these systems date from the point 
where the first 1,260 years end, a period lying between 606 
and 620 A. D. approximately, these being the dates of the 
" decree of Phocas " and of the " first Hegira."* Taking 
these dates as the terminus a quo, and adding 1,260 they 
come again to a terminus ad quern, lying somewhere be- 
tween 1866 and 1886, as the beginning of the end of these 
systems as world powers. Moreover, in Rev. xi, 2, the 
treading down of Jerusalem by the Gentiles is the starting 
point of the second period of 42 months. If this be reck- 
oned from 637 A. D. when, after centuries of nominally 
Christian rule, Jerusalem yielded to the victorious Omar, 
and he entered the city seated on a red camel, without 
guards or any precaution, the 1,260 days from that date 
bring us to about 1897 A. D.f 

* If there were space for a fuller presentation of this subject, we should 
give more of the conjectures as to dates. For example, Elliott put the be- 
ginning of the 1,260 years at 529 or 533 A. D., when Justinian's edicts acknowl- 
edged John II. as the head of the church. Luther put it at 606, when Phocas 
confirmed Justinian's grant. Fausset thinks 752 the likeliest date when 
temporal dominion began by Pepin's grant to Stephen II. 

t A writer in The Biblical Scholar says : Whenever Jerusalem gets into the 
enemy's hand she loses in a sense her glorious name of Jerusalem, " The 
Foundation of Peace," and becomes "Jebus," trodden down (see Judges 
six, 10,11). But this is not an everlasting condition; it has an end. Once 
more shall Jerusalem be called "the city of righteousness" (Is. i, 27), which 
is equivalent to the foundation of peace. The times of the Gentiles seem 
even now hastening to their close in the utter failure of the Gentiles in gov- 
ernment. The exact date of that end none can tell. It synchronizes with 
the restoration of the kingdom to Israel in her true Messiah ; but we re- 
member that when the disciples asked the risen Lord as to this, He replied, 
" It is not for you to know the times, or the seasons, which the Father hath 
put in His own power " (Acts i, 7). " The Day," to which Scripture so 
often refers as " The Day of the Lord," has, like the natural day, its preced- 
ing evidences or signs, its streaks of dawn along the east, so that we may 
see the Day approaching " (Heb. x, 25), but the moment when the true Sun 
shall throw His glorious beams across this turbulent scene is hidden. As- 
suming the times of the Gentiles to have begun at the first capture of Jeru- 
salem, B. C. <5o6, at the date of which the book of Daniel opens, then have 



414 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

IV. The Sabbatic System. — The septenary division 
impressed upon the whole face of Scripture history is to 
many Bible students the key to unlock God's chronology. 
This Sabbatic system reaches back to Eden, and charac- 
terizes the annals of the race. First, God consecrated the 
seventh day; to this, in the Mosaic era, were added a 
seventh week, a seventh month, a seventh year, a seventh 
seven of years (the interval between the Jubilees), and a 
seventh seventy (490), introducing the Grand Jubilee. 
In at least two conspicuous places this last sacred number 
appears (1 Kings vi, 1; Daniel ix, 24). It covers first 
the years from the Exodus to the completion of the Tem- 
ple, and again from the New Exodus from Captivity to the 
building of the New Spiritual Temple under the Messiah. 

This number, 490, is a double type of completeness, 
being the product of seven times seventy, and of seven 
sevens (the Jubilee interval), multiplied by another sacred 
number, ten. The Jubilee periods reckon, of course, from 
Moses, under whom the first law of the Jubilee is an- 
nounced. Counting the Exodus from 2515, A. M., the 
full seven periods of 490, or 3,430 years, would bring us 
to 5945 A. M., or 1943 A. D., as their extreme limit. But 
if reckoned by the prophetic year of 360 days, twelve equal 
months of 30 days — the limit will fall at about the present 
time. 

V. The Antichrist Number. — This suggests a fifth 
mode or computation. This mystic number, " six hundred 
three score and six/' is taken by some as a key to God's 
reckoning of time — or the Divine Calendar. (Rev. 
xiii, 18.) 

This is the Divinely given mark of the Lawless One, 
who is to be revealed in the last year-week, and it is thus 

they already lasted two thousand five hundred and four years, a period in 
itself of sufficient length to make us anticipate that its end must be drawing 
near. 



STUDY OF THE " LAST THINGS " 415 

inseparably linked with the Man of Sin in whom, per- 
sonally, are to " head up " all the antichristian systems of 
history. This number is thought by not a few to be the 
symbolic number of perpetual unrest and incompleteness, 
being a repeating decimal, 666, ever approaching but never 
reaching seven, the number of completeness and rest. If 
this number be again multiplied by six — its conspicuous 
and characteristic factor — we get 3,996, a number having 
singular prominence in history. It measures the period of 
years between the creation of Adam, and the grand crisis, 
the Birth of Christ. Or again, reckoning from the Birth 
of Abraham, the Father of the Faithful, — a conspicuous 
epoch in sacred history, — we come to the close of this 
century as marking a new grand crisis, the Messiah's re- 
appearing. This mode of computation will be at once 
rejected by many as fanciful, yet it has its value as another 
thread in the rope of many strands, which seems to unite 
the age in which we are now living with the grand con- 
summation, and as such we give it a place in this array of 
argument. 

VI. " The Eleventh Hour " Mode. — This method of 
computation is suggested by the parable of the laborers in 
the vineyard (Matt, xxi, 6), and has at least the merit of 
ingenuity. According to this view the world age, from 
the time of Christ, is to be divided into twelve " hours," 
marked off and separated by events of supreme signifi- 
cance, as the striking of God's clock. Of this mode of 
computation, Prof. Totten, of Yale, is an exponent. He 
makes the hours to be one hundred and fifty-three years 
each, this odd number being apparently suggested by the 
strange exactness and particularity with which the number 
of fish is recorded in John xxi, 11, the first miracle after 
Christ's resurrection, and connected with the labor of His 
apostles. 



4 i6 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

According to this reckoning, and counting from 3991 
A. M., the beginning of the fifty-eighth generation of 
seventy years, and about the period of the birth of Christ, 
the hours would respectively end as follows : A. M., 4143, 
4296, 4449, 4602, 4755, 4908, 5061, 5214, 5367, 5520, 5673, 
5826, corresponding to A. D. 147, 300, 453, 606, 759, 912, 
1065, I2I 8, 1 37 1, 1524, 1677, 1840. Then would follow 
another generation of seventy years, to cover the calling 
of the laborers and giving them their hire — a series of 
judicial visitations, bringing us again to the same approxi- 
mate limit, A. D., 1910. 

The six other methods are not numerical but historical 
in their basis, and have reference to conditions existing 
among the three great divisions — the Jew, the Gentile, and 
the Church of God. (1 Cor. x, 32.) 

VII. The World-wide Witness. — Our Lord Himself 
distinctly gave this intimation that the Gospel must first 
be published among all nations, and preached as a witness 
to all nations, and " Then shall the end come." Compare 
Matt, xxiv, 14 ; Mark xiii, 10. 

With no little force many argue that there was never a 
period of such world-wide evangelism as now. Over three 
hundred missionary societies have spread their network 
over the earth, and more than ten thousand missionary 
workers, with a force of five times as many native Chris- 
tian helpers. The Bible, translated into some four hun- 
dred languages and dialects, publishes by its printed pages 
the Gospel message, which living tongues proclaim. A 
few countries like Tibet remain to be entered, but even in 
these the iron doors seem about to open, and the time may 
be very near at hand when to every nation the witness shall 
have been proclaimed. Certainly, never at any previous 
period in human history has the " witness " been so gen- 
erally borne to the various nations of the fallen race. as> 



STUDY OF THE « LAST THINGS " 417 

now. Even the peoples among whom no missionary dwells 
have more or less come into contact with the testimony of 
the Bible and the missionary to the facts of Christianity. 

VIII. The Laodicean State. — This mode of estimat- 
ing our present place in the world's history, is of course 
drawn from the hints found in Rev. iii, 14-22. But the 
argument is especially strengthened and confirmed by a 
comparison with Matt, xiii, 47-50. The latter gives a 
glimpse of the last state of the Kingdom as the end draws 
near, and the former, of the Church at the same period. 
In Matthew we have the world-wide evangelism, already 
referred to, symbolized in the Dragnet, cast into the world 
sea, and gathering of every kind; and, in Revelation, we 
have the Laodicean church, with Christ shut out, and self- 
satisfaction and offensive lukewarmness reigning within; 
and these two apparently contradictory conditions, coin- 
ciding and coexisting in the last days. With awful em- 
phasis do some devout souls point us to the startling fact 
that just now, and never before, this strange paradox is 
realized : the Church engaged on the one hand in the most 
extensive and world-wide evangelization, and yet involved 
on the other hand in the most hopeless deterioration, rich, 
increased with goods, in need of nothing, but virtually 
shutting out Christ. This is called the paradox of history, 
and it is maintained that these seemingly conflicting states 
are to be realized in the days immediately preceding the 
coming of the Son of Man — as a like paradox existed in 
the Jewish state at His first coming. 

IX. The Apostasy. — Another basis of computation, 
similar to the foregoing, but not identical with it, is found 
in a much broader exposition of the Scriptures. We are 
plainly told of a falling away (Artodradia), to precede the 
Son of Perdition, and the Parousia of the Son of Man. 



4i 8 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

2 Thess. ii, 3. This apostasy has a full portraiture in the 
Pastoral Epistles, in Second Peter, First John, and Jude. 
The features in the portrait are marked. They are such as 
these : a colossal development of selfishness, a generation 
of heretical teachers, iniquitous practises even among be- 
lievers, the love of many waxing cold, the Church of God 
becoming Satan's synagog and seat, the Word of God and 
His doctrine blasphemed, the Church wedded to the world, 
having the form without the power of godliness, and the 
Lord's coming, the blessed Hope, scorned and scoffed at, 
etc. 

To these and similar features, many prayerful disciples 
call attention, and ask whether we are not even now in 
the age of the apostasy, iniquity abounding and the love 
of many waxing cold ; the authority and inspiration of the 
Word undermined even by professedly Christian teachers 
and preachers, and a wave of worldliness and materialism, 
sweeping over the Church, and carrying away every dis- 
tinctive mark of an apostolic assembly. Similar condi- 
tions have existed before, but, it is said, never in the face 
of such light, privilege, and opportunity, nor to a similar 
extent. 

X. The Anarchistic Age. — Side by side with the 
prophetic hints of an apostasy in the Church stands the 
portrait of anarchy in the world, and in the same writings. 
And again the features are very marked : gigantic selfish- 
ness, covetousness, pride, self-glory, blasphemy, false ac- 
cusation, idolatry of pleasure, etc., but mainly the lawless 
spirit — anarchy. Lawlessness in the family, in marital 
incontinence, and disobedience to parents; lawlessness in 
society, in truce breaking, and false accusation; lawless- 
ness in the state, in despising those that are good and being 
traitors to those in authority; lawlessness toward man, 
without natural affection, and toward God in scoffers that 



STUDY OF THE « LAST THINGS " 419 

mock His warnings ; wandering stars refusing wholly the 
orbit of obedience and moving further into the blackness 
of darkness. Behold, say many, the lawless spirit now 
prevailing, the uprising of organized resistance to all law- 
ful authority, magisterial or ecclesiastical — the combina- 
tion of forces to supplant all government ; and at the same 
time the arbitrary attempt to compel men to limit even 
trade and commerce by a certain " mark," which alone 
shall authorize one to " buy and sell " (Rev. xii, 16, 17). 
For the first time in history these two signs of the last 
times of anarchy have had simultaneous development; 
the recent growth of communism, socialism, and nihilism, 
wholly unprecedented, and side by side the growth of 
monopolies, trusts, trades unions, and protective organiza- 
tions, restricting even buying and selling by their " mark." 

XL The Jewish Sign.— Many regard as another sign 
of the end, the obvious drift of the Jews toward their own 
land and the rehabilitation of their national life, not to 
speak of the conversion of so many under Rabinowitz and 
other evangelical leaders, etc. This is believed to be the 
putting forth of the leaves of the " fig tree," which our 
Lord gave as a sign that the end is " near, even at the 
doors " ( Matt, xxiv, 32, 33). There is something start- 
ling about the rapidly increasing Jewish element in Pales- 
tine and the movement known as " Zionism " that has de- 
veloped within a few years, and summoned four great con- 
ferences in European centers, where leading Jews have met 
to discuss the very problems of Jewish colonization and 
national revival. Has the patriotic and national spirit of 
the Jewish remnant had any such time of reawakening 
since Christ ascended? Is this the fulfilling of Ezekiel's 
vision of the dry bones (Ezek. xxxvii) ? If so, what events 
are " at the very doors? " A missionary in Palestine calls 
attention to the fact that ten times as many Jews reside 



420 FORWARD MOVEMENTS 

there as forty years ago, and that their social status is be- 
coming more influential and commanding. Hundreds of 
converted Jews are already in the Church of England, and 
thousands in the Church at large, and there are unmistak- 
able signs of Jewish reawakening. 

XII. The Spirit's Restraint. — The last of all these 
signs of the end to which space allows reference is that 
which concerns the mysterious prediction concerning Him 
who continues to " let " or act as the Hinderer of Evil, and 
whose self-removal is to leave the mystery of iniquity to 
find full revelation (2 Thess. ii, 7). 

Some hold that, as Satan is the hinderer restraining all 
good, so the Holy Spirit is the Hinderer, restraining all 
evil ; and that the good Spirit will be withdrawn in effect 
as an active administrator in the Church and resisting force 
in the world, before the crisis of lawlessness comes, and 
the end of the man of sin in the second Advent. Those 
who maintain this view contend that every sign shows that 
the Spirit either has withdrawn or is withdrawing even 
from the Church, as a whole; that as a cause or a conse- 
quence of such withdrawal there is left so little spiritual 
worship or work, spiritual faith or life; that, while these 
all exist in the elect few, they characterize individuals 
rather than the Church as a body. Especially is this fact 
made prominent by the advocates of this view, that in the 
matter of administration, — the specific office of the Spirit, 
— He is displaced by the spirit of the age, as evinced by the 
worldly men, maxims, methods, the secular spirit, artistic 
music, worldly oratory, entertainments, etc., everywhere 
prevalent. And those who sound this note of warning, 
this midnight cry, feel constrained to bear witness that no 
sign remains in the Church at large that the Spirit of God 
retains His seat in His own temple, and that the Shekinah 
glory is already departed. 



STUDY OF THE « LAST THINGS " 421 

All this should at least stir up thoughtful readers to 
search for themselves into the warnings of the Word, to 
watch the signs of the times, and to ask what are the indi- 
cations above the prophetic and historic horizon. " Daniel 
understood by books the number of the years," and hence 
knew that the seventy years of desolation were about ac- 
complished (Dan. ix, 2). If the signs of the near end of a 
longer period of desolation are to be found in the books, 
and read as in the sky, it may well incite us all to be among 
the searchers and the watchers, who, while others sleep, 
are awake and looking for the dawn. 



APPENDIX 

Circular of tfye Ctbult Bible Class 
or 

Superintenbent's (5uilb of Bethany Cfyurdj, 
Pfyilabelpfyia, Penna, 

APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP 

My name is 

I live at 

Occupation and where employed: 

My family consists of. 

7/ a member of any Church, please state what Church: 

I AGREE 

First. — To attend every Sabbath afternoon, Providence 
permitting, excepting the Sabbath 

of the month. 

* 

Second. — I will faithfully endeavor to live up to the 
rules of the Class, and do whatever I can in making the 
Class useful. 

Signed, full name: 

423 



424 APPENDIX 

The 
Articles of Association 

of THE 
Superintendent's Bible Guild. 



We agree to associate ourselves together, mainly for an 
hour's conference on religious subjects, on Sunday after- 
noons, and for such other means of improvement and use- 
fulness as are herein set forth or may from time to time be 
adopted. 

Agreement of the Teacher 

The teacher binds himself to be present, to give a twenty- 
minute talk, every Sunday, unless sick or absent from 
home. 

Members' Agreement 

The members agree to attend each Sunday, as stated by 
each one at time of making application, unless sick or 
away from home. 

Members' Bibles 

Each member agrees to own a moderate-sized Bible and 
bring it to the study meeting every Sunday. 

Members' Weekly Gifts 

Each member agrees to give the fixed sum of not less 
than either two or three cents a week, to make ten cents a 
month, for the purposes stated further on. 

Members' Pledge 

If a Christian, to engage with the teacher and put con- 
science in such work as he may propose. 



APPENDIX 425 

If not a Christian, to spend a little time each day, alone, 
with the question, " Why am I not a Christian? " 

Members' Duty 
To make it a point to attend : 

1. A monthly Vesper Service, from 7 to 8, on the first 
Sabbath evening of each month. 

2. The Quarterly Conference, to be held the fourth Mon- 
day night of March, June, September, December. 

3. The Anniversary Meeting, during the month of Feb- 
ruary. 

Members' Promise 

a. To read over during the week the Scriptures to be 
studied on the Sabbath. 

b. To do all fault-finding with each other and the teacher 
privately, and only with the person at fault. 

c. To try each week to find some one to invite to the 
Sunday meeting of the Guild. 

d. If not able to attend, to send a written resignation, 
and, if removing, to take a Certificate of Dismission. 

Form of Organisation 

Each ten members shall constitute a Club or Band, and 
shall have as its captain, or leader, a head, to be known as 
the Titheman. They shall sit together, in seats specified 
by the teacher. 

Each nine Clubs (9x11 — 99 persons) shall have a 
Governor or Centurion. 

The Centurions and Tithemen and the membership of 
each of the Bands shall be appointed by the Teacher. 

Each corps of one hundred shall have a name and each 
company of ten shall have its own name. 

Certificate 
Each member will receive a Certificate of Membership 
when admitted, and an annual statement of the number of 
times attending during the year. 



426 APPENDIX 

Accounting Steward 

There shall be one Accounting Steward, who shall sit 
at the Treasury table and receive the collections and the 
moneys to be paid over by the Tithemen, keeping proper 
accounts, and reporting each Sabbath the collection of the 
previous Sabbath. 

Attending Stewards 

There shall be four Attending Stewards, who shall be 
at the doors when members are entering, and give out the 
envelopes. They shall also attend to all distributions, and 
take up the basket collections. 

Secretary 

There shall be one Secretary, who will keep the Roll- 
books, and have charge of all the blanks and printed mat- 
ter. 

Duties of the Centurions 

They shall sit at a desk provided, keep a record of the 
attendance of the Tithemen and see that they attend to 
their duties, receive the contributions of their respective 
Guilds, count the same, keep a record, or pay over each 
Sabbath to the Accounting Steward. 

They will maintain, by their personal diligence and the 
aid of their Tithemen, a kindly watch and care over the 
hundred souls committed to them, advance their welfare, 
wherever possible, by good counsel and helpfulness, and 
see that the teacher is apprised of anything that can be 
done by him to be useful to the flock. The Centurions will 
take turns in conducting the opening worship of the Sab- 
bath meeting. 

Duties of the Tithemen 

To be present each Sabbath ten minutes before meeting 
begins ; to see their members seated, receive the tithes and 



APPENDIX 427 

mark the attendance in Band book. To pay over each 
Sabbath the gifts to the Centurions, and to make out and 
give to the Secretary at the closing of each session, for the 
teacher, the daily statement of the class present, etc., on 
blank furnished by Secretary. It will also be their duty 
to visit the absentees, or state that they cannot do so. 

Fortnightly Conference 

A conference of the Centurions and Tithemen with the 
Teacher will be held the first and third Sundays of each 
month, at 2 p. m. 

Honorable Mention 

The Band showing the most regular attendance during 
the year shall be mentioned at the Annual Meeting, and 
shall be known as the " King's Guard " and shall be en- 
titled to first rank and special honor on all occasions. 

THE SPECIFIC AIM OF THE GUILD SHALL BE: 

First. To study and practice the Bible and encourage 
each other in the business of life. 

Second. For each one to find something to do (if ever 
so little) for the good of those around us. 

SOME OF THE METHODS TO BE EMPLOYED 

ARE THESE: 

First. To help the poor, sick and unfortunate. 

Second. To maintain a Bible Woman and Colporteur 
to visit and circulate books. 

Third. To maintain one child in the Orphanage. 

Fourth. To educate a deserving boy or girl in the 
Northfield Schools. 

Fifth. To maintain a weekly house prayer-meeting. 

Sixth. To maintain a mother's meeting. 



428 APPENDIX 

Seventh. To actively engage in the temperance work. 
Eighth. To engage in such other work as the teacher 
may from time to time suggest. 

TEXT OF THE CLASS: 

For the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but 
to minister and to give His life a ransom for many. 

MOTTO VERSE OF THE CLASS: 

I live for those who love me. 

For those who know me true; 
For the heaven that smiles above me, 

And awaits my spirit too ; 
For the cause that lacks assistance, 

For the wrong that needs resistance, 
For the future in the distance — 

For the good that I can do. 

The Lord's Day, March 4, 1888. 



16 1900 






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